bitchy | Donald Trump terminated Kamala Harris’s Secret Service protection

In the pre-Donald Trump era, former presidents, former vice presidents and former first families would all get Secret Service protection and that protection was never politicized. President Biden never politicized the protection given to Trump’s extended family after 2020, just as President Obama never politicized the protection given to the Bush family. You just… let the Secret Service do their jobs, and if they feel that certain people need protection, so be it. Presidents can also issue directives or executive orders for extended protection for any length of time. Which is what Joe Biden did for Kamala Harris – he extended her protection out of office via an EO. Well, now Trump has revoked it.

President Trump has terminated former Vice President Kamala Harris’s Secret Service protection, according to a letter obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Trump signed a memorandum on Thursday that will end Ms. Harris’s protection as of Monday.

The Secret Service usually protects a former vice president for six months after they leave office, but President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had signed an order extending Ms. Harris’s protection beyond that, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. Without that extension, Ms. Harris’s protection would have concluded in July.

“The Vice President is grateful to the United States Secret Service for their professionalism, dedication, and unwavering commitment to safety,” Kirsten Allen, a senior adviser to Ms. Harris, said in a statement. The White House declined to comment. The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The end of Ms. Harris’s protection comes just before she is set to embark on a nationwide tour to promote her new book about her presidential campaign. The book, titled “107 Days,” is scheduled to be published Sept. 23.

Since taking office, Mr. Trump has ended Secret Service protection for a number of people. Within hours of being sworn in, he removed the security detail for John R. Bolton, one of his former national security advisers with whom he had a falling out. He also revoked protection for Mike Pompeo, one of his former secretaries of state, and Brian Hook, a former aide, despite warnings that the men faced ongoing threats from Iran. In March, Mr. Trump also ended Secret Service protection for Mr. Biden’s children, Hunter and Ashley. Mr. Biden had issued an executive order that extended protection to them.

[From The NY Times]

Trump is not simply politicizing who gets protection and who doesn’t, he’s actively putting targets on his “enemies” and trying to create situations where his violent wingnuts harm those people. I hate that the first Black woman to serve as VPOTUS will now have to pay for her own security. I would also assume that in Kamala’s case in particular, California’s state police might pick up some of the slack when it comes to her security. She was the state’s senator and attorney general, after all.

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