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secret service
'Another Act of Revenge': Trump Cancels Secret Service Extended Protection for Kamala Harris
"The safety of our public officials should never be subject to erratic, vindictive political impulses," said a spokesman for California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Aug 29, 2025
US President Donald Trump has canceled extended Secret Service protection for former Vice President Kamala Harris just as she was scheduled to go on a multi-city book tour.
CNN reported on Friday that Trump this week sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security that simply read, "You are hereby authorized to discontinue any security-related procedures previously authorized by executive memorandum, beyond those required by law, for the following individual, effective September 1, 2025: Former Vice President Kamala D. Harris."
As CNN explained, former vice presidents are entitled by federal law to six months of Secret Service protection after leaving office.
However, former President Joe Biden late in his term signed a directive that extended Harris' protection past the standard six-month window. The reason for the extension—its existence not reported publicly until Trump moved to revoke it—has not been made clear.
Harris last year was the Democratic Party's presidential nominee after then-President Joe Biden decided against running for a second term.
As California is Harris' home state, both California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are aware of and have been discussing Harris' security situation, and CNN noted she could get added protection in the future from the Los Angeles Police Department or potentially another state agency.
In a statement given to CNN, Bass delivered a scathing denunciation of the president for revoking his former rival's Secret Service protection.
"This is another act of revenge following a long list of political retaliation in the form of firings, the revoking of security clearances and more," she said. "This puts the former Vice President in danger and I look forward to working with the Governor to make sure Vice President Harris is safe in Los Angeles."
Bob Salladay, a spokesman for Newsom, also ripped the president for his actions.
"The safety of our public officials should never be subject to erratic, vindictive political impulses," he said.
Harris is scheduled to go on tour starting next month in New York to promote her book "107 Days," which reflects on her failed 2024 presidential campaign.
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Patel Taps Far-Right Misinformation Peddler Dan Bongino for Deputy FBI Director
"I know this feels like a bad dream," said one Democratic senator. "It isn't."
Feb 24, 2025
In a move cheered by the MAGA faithful but derided by critics, FBI Director Kash Patel picked Dan Bongino—a former New York City police officer and Secret Service agent turned Fox News and podcast host known for spreading right-wing conspiracy theories—as the agency's deputy director.
In what he called "great news for Law Enforcement and American Justice," U.S. President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social site to announce Patel's selection of Bongino for the number two FBI post.
On Monday, Bongino said in a statement: "My career has always been about service. I'm here to work. I'm here to lead. And I'm here to ensure that America's law enforcement institutions uphold the values and integrity they were built upon."
Patel congratulated Bongino, whom he called a "warrior."
"With Pam Bondi as our new attorney general, we are assembling a team focused on restoring public trust, upholding the rule of law, and ensuring justice is served," Patel said on Monday.
The Bulwark reported Monday that the FBI Agents Association issued a memo implying that Patel broke a commitment he made to appoint "an on-board, active special agent" as deputy director, "as has been the case for 117 years."
Critics lambasted Patel's pick, with progressive podcast host David Paskman
writing on the Bluesky social media site, "We're so screwed."
Adam Goldman and Devlin Barrett wrote in The New York Times: "The combination of Mr. Patel and Mr. Bongino will represent the least experienced leadership pair in the bureau's history. It is also all but certain to prompt concerns about how the men, who have freely peddled misinformation and embraced partisan politics, will run an agency typically insulated from White House interference."
Some critics expressed fears that Trump will use Patel and Bongino to attack political opponents.
Others called Bongino a "grifter."
Bongino worked as a New York police officer from 1995-99 and as a Secret Service agent from 1999-2011, leaving the agency to run for U.S. Senate—the first of three unsuccessful political campaigns.
After failing in politics, Bongino became a popular conspiracy theorist on social media and right-wing talk radio. In addition to hosting his own Fox News program from 2021-23 and a podcast with millions of listeners, he has frequently appeared on Alex Jones' Infowars fake news program. He also hosted a show on the National Rifle Association's defunct online video channel.
Bongino is the author of more than half a dozen books, some of them promoting conspiracy theories about the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. He quickly became one of the most strident purveyors of Trump's "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was stolen by the so-called "deep state" and Democrats.
Since then, Bongino has used his platforms to amplify conspiracy theories and lies about topics including the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection and the Covid-19 pandemic. He was banned from both YouTube and Google's ad service for spreading pandemic-related misinformation. In 2020, The New York Times included him on its list of "misinformation superspreaders."
At times, Bongino seemed to relish his notoriety, once explaining that "my entire life right now is about owning the libs."
Last year, the purportedly non-political appointee ripped "scumbag commie libs," the "biggest pussies I've ever seen," in a vague threat posted on Elon Musk's social media site X.
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Secret Service Director Resigns After Trump Assassination Attempt
Kimberly Cheatle said in an email to colleagues that the agency "fell short" of its mission to protect U.S. leaders.
Jul 23, 2024
United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally and intense bipartisan grilling by members of a congressional committee.
The New York Times reported that Cheatle—who led the Secret Service since September 2022—said in an internal email that the agency "fell short" of its mission to protect Trump, the Republican presidential nominee who was shot in the ear while speaking at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
"In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director," Cheatle wrote.
Calls for Cheatle's resignation mounted following her Monday testimony before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, during which she acknowledged that "we failed" in "the Secret Service's solemn mission... to protect our nation's leaders."
Following the hearing, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who chairs the committee, and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member, issued a joint letter accusing Cheatle of failing "to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure" and calling on her to resign "as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people."
In her resignation email, Cheatle told colleagues, "I do not want my calls for resignation to be a distraction from the great work each and every one of you do towards our vital mission."
Responding to Cheatle's resignation, Raskin said that "yesterday's Oversight Committee hearing identified two urgent priorities in the wake of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump and the accompanying mass shooting. The first was the need for Director Cheatle to step down... We accomplished that today."
"The other urgent need was to ban assault weapons to protect the rest of us from mass shootings like the one that took place in Butler," he added. "As I made clear during yesterday's hearing, a weapon that can be used to commit a mass shooting at an event under the full protection of the Secret Service and state and local police is a danger to schoolchildren; Walmart shoppers; and congregants in church, synagogue, and mosque services."
Twenty-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks used a legally purchased AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle to shoot Trump before he was killed by a Secret Service sniper. A rally attendee, Corey Comperatore, was fatally shot, and two other men were seriously injured by gunfire.
"As a weapon of war, the AR-15 has no legitimate place in our society," Raskin argued. "Congress must act now."
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