Michelle Obama and President Obama conferred and quickly reached a consensus as a couple on who should oversee security for the first family, after the resignation of Secret Service director Julia Pierson on Wednesday.
The pair didn't waste any time advising White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to recommend Joseph Clancy, the retired special agent nicknamed 'Father Joe,' who had previously overseen Obama's protective detail, The Washington Post reported.
Clancy left the Secret Service in 2011 for the private sector - to head security for Comcast - but he had worked Obama's detail when the President and his family first moved into the White House in 2009.
'The President, like all of us, felt things were under control when Joe was there,' David Axelrod, Obama's former campaign advisor, told the Post.
'Joe was always calm, always in command. The president developed a great deal of trust in him. More than anything, he had the sense that whatever judgment needed to be made, he would make the right ones.'
One call from the Obama administration is all it took for Clancy, who lives in Philadelphia, to drop everything and agree to serve as acting director of the Secret Service until a replacement is found.
The 58-year-old will start next week.
'We are highly confident he will be an outstanding interim leader for the Secret Service and we wish him the very best,' Comcast said in a statement about the departing exec.
Over his 25 career at the agency, Clancy led the security details for George W. Bush and President Clinton.
This week, Bush expressed his confidence in Clancy's abilities.
'I know Clancy very well. He's a good man. And I trust his judgment a lot. Joe is a -- Joe will do a good job,' Bush told FOX News on Thursday.
llarson@nydailynews.com
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