It’s not yet clear what Kamala Harris’ future political plans are. The former vice president recently announced that she would not be a gubernatorial candidate in California next year, for example, and soon after, the Democrat announced she’d hold a series of public events to promote her upcoming book on last year’s presidential race.
But no matter what Harris does next, one thing suddenly seems clear: She won’t have Secret Service protection. NBC News reported:
President Donald Trump has revoked U.S. Secret Service protection for former Vice President Kamala Harris, a senior adviser to Harris told NBC News on Friday. … A senior White House official confirmed Friday that Trump revoked Harris’ Secret Service detail, adding that vice presidents typically only get six months of protection when they leave office.
It’s true that while former presidents receive Secret Service protection for life, an expensive privilege, Harris’ protection was scheduled to expire after six months. That said, CNN was first to report that Joe Biden, before leaving the White House, approved an extension for an additional year.
Trump has now undone that policy.
In response to the news, longtime Harris senior advisor Kirsten Allen told MSNBC, “The Vice President is grateful to the United States Secret Service for their professionalism, dedication, and unwavering commitment to safety.”
If these developments seem familiar, it’s not your imagination. About a week into his second term, Trump started pulling security details from a variety of former officials, including former White House national security adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former special envoy to Iran Brian Hook and Dr. Anthony Fauci — apparently out of spite.
Asked by a reporter if he’d feel partially responsible if something awful were to happen to any of these former officials, Trump said he would not, adding, “Certainly, I would not take responsibility.”
Some Republicans, like Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have urged the president to rethink his approach. So far he has refused.
In February, the trend continued when Trump also pulled the security detail for his former defense secretary, Mark Esper. In March, the president also terminated Secret Service protection for Joe Biden’s two adult children, suspiciously soon after a question about the detail from a conservative media outlet. But while Harris is in good company, she’s also in a unique position: Of all the people on this list, she’s the only one to have been elected to national office. For the record, there is no modern precedent for an American president effectively wielding security details as a political tool, stripping protection from those he deems unworthy. It’s one of the many ways Trump is breaking new ground — and not in a good way. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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