Secret Service to brief Congress on clash between agents protecting VP Harris

Secret Service officials will give a bipartisan briefing to Congress to answer questions about training and recruiting issues regarding an agent on Vice President Kamala Harris’s protective detail who attacked her supervisor. 

The briefing will be on June 21, in response to a letter from House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. 

“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 Digital. 

Comer wrote to U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, an appointee of President Biden. 

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“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.

The Secret Service has confirmed in other media accounts the altercation occurred at about 9 a.m. on April 22 at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The agent, who was ultimately escorted away in handcuffs, has been removed from the vice president’s detail. The Secret Service has described the incident as a “medical matter.”

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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. 

The L.A. Times recently reported on voter focus groups viewing Vice President Kamala Harris unfavorably. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“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 asked Cheatle for a briefing for committee staff on or before June 13, so the Secret Service briefing will be a few days later. 

The Secret Service provides protection to the president, the vice president, their spouses and children. 

Members of the Secret Service arrest a climate activist on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 7, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP)

The Washington Examiner first reported the incident.

Real Clear Politics reported that the agent was acting “erratically” and punched him.

Joint Base Andrews is where Air Force One and Air Force Two transport the president and vice president. Harris was still at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory when the altercation happened, and the confrontation did not delay her travel.