Good question. Why was he fired?

The security guard fired after accompanying President Barack Obama in an elevator at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta while carrying a gun says his dismissal was “unjust” — and media coverage of the event has been “a nightmare.”

“From the reports, I was some stranger that entered the elevator,” Kenneth Tate told the New York Times. “I mean, I was appointed.”

Tate, who had worked for 10 years as a CDC contractor, was carrying a CDC-issued firearm during Obama’s Sept. 16 visit — a violation of Secret Service protocols, which state that only agents and officers for the agency should be armed while in proximity to the president.

It was later revealed that Julia Pierson, then director of the Secret Service, did not inform the White House that Tate was armed. Pierson subsequently resigned over a series of security lapses, most notably when a White House fence jumper armed with a knife gained entry to the White House. That incident, which occurred three days after Tate’s fateful elevator ride, prompted a congressional hearing.

It was also erroneously reported that Tate was a convicted felon, but the ex-security guard and his former employer say that while he had been arrested several times — most recently in 1996 — no felony or misdemeanor convictions appear on his record.