Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, commended Secret Service supervisor Paula Reid for acting “decisively” and “appropriately” in response to the prostitution scandal in Colombia.
Collins, a ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, had harsher words for the 11 male agents’ “appalling” behavior with alleged female hookers prior to a Summit of the Americas conference in Cartagena.
“What are Secret Service personnel doing bringing unknown foreign nationals to their rooms, regardless of their age?” she asked Sunday during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”
Questions have been raised as to the age of the women, although no evidence indicates any female involved is underage.
“I recognize that the vast majority of Secret Service personnel are professional, disciplined, dedicated, courageous, but to me, it defies belief that this is just an aberration,” she said. “There were too many people involved.”
Collins wondered on "This Week" whether adding female Secret Service agents to the 247-year-old government agency would have pre-empted such a scandal.
“I can’t help but wonder, if there’d been more women as part of that detail, if this ever would have happened,” she said.
She also sounded off on the ABC News talks show about the General Services Administration’s spending flap, and said both scandals are “shocking.”
“In both cases, I’m saying, ‘What were they thinking?’ ” she said.
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