Secret Service evacuates White House briefing room

Show Caption Hide Caption White House reporters suspicious after bomb scare evacuation The Secret Service evacuated the White House press room Tuesday over a bomb threat, but reporters spent the afternoon saying things didn't add up. Video provided by Newsy

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service evacuated the White House briefing room for about 30 minutes Tuesday because of a bomb threat phoned in to Washington police.

The evacuation came in the middle of a press briefing by Press Secretary Josh Earnest. President Obama was at the White House during the threat but was not impacted, Earnest said.

Earnest said the threat was specific to the briefing room. The Secret Service "determined that for the safety of all of us they needed to evacuate all of us and sweep it," he said.

The Secret Service said the threat was phoned in to the Washington Metropolitan Police Department at 1:53 p.m. The briefing room was evacuated 21 minutes later as Earnest was responding to questions about the hacking of federal personnel records.

"All press come with me please!" an officer shouted, as he and others herded reporters toward an auditorium at the Old Executive Office Building in the White House complex.

Earlier Tuesday, Capitol Police evacuated the Dirksen Senate Office Building after a phoned-in bomb threat there. No bomb was found.

Networks maintained their live feeds from the briefing room, where Secret Service agents could be seen covering up the cameras and inspecting the room with bomb-sniffing dogs.

This evacuation was reminiscent of the September incident in which a man jumped the White House fence, although veteran White House reporters could not remember a time that the White House has ever been evacuated in the middle of a live event.

Lafayette Park north of the White House was also cordoned off.

Brief lockdowns have become more commonplace in recent months as the Secret Service has responded to attempted intruders and drone incidents.