Mitt Romney: Secret Service agents in Colombian hookers scandal should be fired

Mitt Romney called for the dismissal of the Secret Service agents who hooked up with Colombian prostitutes - saying the agency needed to “clean house.”

Romney, in his strongest comments to date on the embarrassing scandal, ripped the agents - who were part of President Obama’s advance team - for putting their “play time” ahead of the Commander-in-Chief’s security.

“I’d clean house,” Romney told radio host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday when asked how he would address the situation.

“The right thing to do,” the likely GOP presidential nominee said, “is to remove people who have violated the public trust and have put their play time and their personal interests ahead of the interests of the nation.”

Eleven Secret Service agents and nine U.S. servicemen in the presidential entourage are accused of cavorting with up to 21 hookers at a posh Cartagena hotel in advance of a world leader summit.

The eleven agents were recalled to Washington and stripped of their security clearance as investigators determine whether the women had access to the officers’ phones - which had information on Obama’s schedule and security.

Obama has expressed confidence in the agency but said he would be “angry” if the allegations were true.

Romney, who as the Republican frontrunner receives Secret Service protection, shared those sentiments and did not call for the agency’s director, Mark Sullivan, to resign.

“We are a nation, after all, under law and the President has confidence in the head of the Secret Service, as do I,” Romney said. “I believe that the right corrective action will be taken there and obviously everyone is very, very disappointed in these stories, very uncharacteristic of the service.”

The incident has turned into an unsightly election-year distraction for the President.

Five of the agents busted in the sordid scandal are members of an elite unit who protect Obama’s motorcade.

Two were senior supervisors, while three were snipers. Some of the military men involved claimed they did not know the women were hookers - though they were picked up at a well-known brothel.

The agents were based at the Hotel Caribe, which is not where Obama stayed during the summit. Guests there say the agents were drinking heavily in the days before the bust.

The steamy rendezvous came to light when one of the agents refused to pay a woman who spent the night in his room.