CBS This Morning reported Friday on bipartisan calls for the resignation or firing of Office of Personnel Management director Katherine Archuleta in the wake of a "devastating" security breach that saw the personal data of 21.5 million people hacked, including Social Security numbers and fingerprints.
"Plenty of Republicans have called for the firing of Katherine Archuleta, the head of OPM," said CBS White House correspondent Major Garrett. "What tends to attract the attention of this White House is when prominent Democrats do the same. One has, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. Other top Democrats have called the data breach devastating and unacceptable."
Warner, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a statement Thursday calling for Archuleta to step down.
As for the extent of the damage, Garrett said, "The numbers speak for themselves."
Indeed, the Obama administration acknowledged Thursday the extent of the hack was much worse than initially thought. The New York Times reported the attack, which likely originated in China, was a theft of "addresses, health and financial history" of 19.7 million people who had undergone a government background check, as well as another 1.8 million that included their spouses and friends.
Sen. Cory Gardner (R., Colo.) said he and others had been told by the White House "with some level of understanding" that the Chinese were responsible and the Obama administration should say so publicly.
"The administration knows who did this," he said. "If they're certain, then they ought to talk about it."
James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Chinese would use this information to spy on the United States, calling it an "immense intelligence advantage."
"They'll find a million ways to use this and none of them will be good for the U.S.," Lewis said.
The Daily Caller laid out Archuleta's lack of cyber-security experience Thursday, pointing out the White House press release on her first day as OPM head cited she was the first Latina to hold the position and "possesses an abundance of skills to bring talented people together with different ideas and fresh perspectives to strengthen our federal workforce." She was also the national political director for Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, "where she traveled around the country listening to the many issues facing Americans."