OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Secret Service officials are scheduled to provide a bipartisan briefing to Congress to address questions concerning training and recruitment issues. This follows an incident involving an agent from Vice President Harris’ protective detail who attacked their supervisor.
According to The New York Post, the agent in question “brawled” with several others before being removed from the veep’s detail. The altercation took place around 9 a.m. local time before Harris arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Md.
The Secret Service stated that the agent was immediately “removed from their assignment.” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service, explained, “A US Secret Service special agent supporting the Vice President’s departure from Joint Base Andrews began displaying behavior their colleagues found distressing. The US Secret Service takes the safety and health of our employees very seriously.”
Subsequent reports revealed that the agent had punched her supervisor. Allegations also surfaced that the agent had been hired under the federal agency’s progressive “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) policies.
The briefing, scheduled for June 21, is in response to a letter from House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., to U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. Comer wrote to 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.”
In response to the letter, a Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News, “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.”
According to reports from Bloomberg and Fox, Secret Service personnel have circulated a petition calling for a congressional investigation into multiple incidents and have raised concerns about inadequate training and alleged double standards in disciplinary actions.
Chairman Comer’s letter to Cheatle expressed concerns about the hiring and screening process for the agent. He requested a briefing for the committee staff on or before June 13, followed by the Secret Service briefing a few days later.in 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.
