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Secret Service officials are scheduled to provide a bipartisan briefing to Congress to address questions concerning training and recruitment issues in the wake of an incident involving an agent from Vice President Harris’ protective detail who attacked their supervisor.
The New York Post, quoting unnamed sources following the April incident at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Md., said the agent in question “brawled” with several others before being removed from the veep’s detail. The report said the altercation occurred around 9 a.m. before Harris arrived.
The agent was immediately “removed from their assignment,” the Secret Service told The Post.
“A US Secret Service special agent supporting the Vice President’s departure from Joint Base Andrews began displaying behavior their colleagues found distressing,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service, told the outlet. “The US Secret Service takes the safety and health of our employees very seriously.”
Subsequent reports revealed that the agent in question had punched her supervisor. Following the altercation, allegations surfaced that the agent at the center of the incident had been hired under the federal agency’s progressive “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) policies.
The briefing will be on June 21, in response to a letter from House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., to U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
“It was recently reported that a Secret Service agent, tasked with protecting Vice President Kamala Harris, physically attacked her superior (and the commanding agent in charge) and other agents trying to subdue her while on duty at Joint Base Andrews and assigned to the Vice President’s protective detail,” Comer wrote to Cheatle.
“In response to the letter received from Chairman James Comer, the U.S. Secret Service will comply with the House Oversight Committee’s request for a briefing on the topics outlined in the publicly available letter dated May 30, 2024,” a Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News.
According to a Bloomberg reporter, Secret Service personnel have circulated a petition within the agency calling for a congressional investigation into multiple incidents. Fox added that the agents have raised concerns about inadequate training and alleged double standards in disciplinary actions.
“This incident raised concerns within the agency about the hiring and screening process for this agent: specifically, whether previous incidents in her work history were overlooked during the hiring process as years of staff shortages had led the agency to lower once stricter standards as part of a diversity, equity, and inclusion effort,” Comer’s letter to Cheatle continues.
Comer requested that Cheatle give a briefing for the committee staff on or before June 13, and the Secret Service briefing will follow a few days later.
The Washington Examiner was the first to report the incident.
RealClearPolitics’ Susan Crabtree added in an X post:
“Sources within the Secret Service community tell me the agent assigned to VP Kamala Harris was armed during the fight – that the gun was secured in the agent’s holster until other agents physically restrained the agent and took the gun from the agent’s possession. I’m also told there are DEI concerns among the USSS community about the hiring of this agent. Other agents and officers within the USSS are asking questions about the agent’s hiring process, whether the USSS did enough to look into the agent’s background and monitor the agent’s mental well-being because there have been widespread concerns about other strange behavior before this incident. For now, I am also withholding the agent’s name.”
She added: “Other details: Sources say the agent in question was acted erratically upon showing up for a traveling shift at Joint Base Andrews. The agent ended up tackling the Senior Agent in Charge of the VP detail, got on top of him and started punching him. At this point, I’m told, the agent who was attacking the SAIC did indeed have a gun, but it was in the holster. Other agents are expressing relief that the agent did not shoot the SAIC.”
Crabtree later indicated that the agent was a woman.
“It is unclear whether she is on administrative leave, the agency’s common practice while investigating behavioral incidents,” she noted in another X post.
