This just isn’t the Secret Service’s best week. As my colleague Jim Thompson wrote earlier on Friday, information culled from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents showed that there were more than scattered reports of Secret Service (USSS) agents assigned to the White House getting bitten by President Joe Biden’s dog.
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FOIA Requests Reveal That Biden’s Dog Attacked Multiple Secret Service Agents Over Several Months
Back in April, we reported extensively on another problem that the USSS has failed to address and has come back to bite them (pardon the pun) — an agent assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris’ detail acting erratically, including punching another agent while on duty, which was only one of several bizarre incidents leading up to a mental health hospitalization.
RedState’s Brittany Sheehan wrote in late April:
A U.S. Secret Service Agent assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris exhibited concerning behaviors, culminating in a physical altercation that resulted in the agent being dismissed from the assignment and subsequently hospitalized.
According to a statement the Secret Service provided to CBS News, on Monday morning at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington D.C., around 9 a.m. local time, the agent:
began displaying behavior their colleagues found distressing. The agent was removed from their assignment while medical personnel were summoned.
Two sources familiar with the situation told CBS that the agent spoke nonsensically and incoherently. Additionally, the agent is reported to have engaged in a physical altercation with another officer. The sources claim that the agent had pushed the special agent in charge while they were near the lounge area of Joint Base Andrews.
Real Clear Politics reported the agent began punching the special agent in charge after getting on top of him. In a social media post, reporter Susan Crabtree wrote:
BREAKING: 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.
In a follow-up post, she wrote:
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.
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Now, there’s an update on the story that will hopefully help provide answers and correct what appears to be a breakdown in discipline and management in the Secret Service:
Secret Service officials will give a bipartisan briefing to Congress to answer questions about training and recruiting issues regarding an agent on Vice President Harris’ protective detail who attacked her supervisor.
…
Comer wrote to U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, an appointee of President Biden.
“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.
A Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the USSS will “comply” with the request:
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.
The report noted that the briefing would likely happen several days after the USSS first briefs committee staff, which was set to take place “on or before June 13.”
In addition to the concerns about the agent’s hiring through Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mandates, the other agents signed a petition for Congress to step in, which expressed concerns that she was never disciplined for previous incidents for the same reason:
There may have been a number of incidents, according to a petition circulated within the agency by Secret Service personnel seeking a congressional investigation, according to a Bloomberg reporter. The agents asserted problems with inadequate training and a double standard 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.
It appears to be just the latest example of our government’s inability to properly function because of DEI mandates, and good to see a part of the Biden administration being willing to provide answers to the American people on what exactly they’re doing on our dime. We’ll keep you posted.
