Secret Service will add former Joe Biden agents who guarded him as VP to presidential detail because Donald Trump's team may be too political
The United States Secret Service will reorganize the presidential detail as Joe Biden takes office next month over fears current agents who guard President Donald Trump could be too politically aligned.
A handful of senior Secret Service agents who Biden already knows well from his eight years as President Barack Obama’s vice president, will return to guard him as president, two people familiar with the changes told The Washington Post.Come Inauguration Day on January 20, the USSS will implement the changes to avoid potential conflicts with agents’ political preferences for the current president over the incoming.
Although staff changes are normal with presidential transitions, this specific shift indicates how the harsh political differences between Trump and Biden will shift every aspect – even those typically nonpolitical – of the White House.
The change in White House Secret Service detail is meant to increase trust and comfort for incoming president’s and vice president’s with agents in their closest circle.
Several in President Donald Trump's Secret Service detail will be reorganized as Joe Biden takes office
There are concerned that those within the presidential detail could be too politically aligned to Trump, sources say
Some that may join Biden's presidential detail will include those who guarded him during his eight years as vice president
Trump has also attempted to block his administration from treating Biden as the president-elect, which some feel could affect how Secret Service agents interact with the incoming president and fuels security concerns.
Secret Service agents stand by the presidents’ side during most, if not all, sensitive talks with their administration, world leaders and lawmakers and are there for some of the most private moments in their personal lives.
Some in the USSS have also come under criticism the last four years for appearing to embrace Trump’s political agenda – like when reports revealed that some within his detail urged other officers not to wear face masks while on presidential trips this year.
Anthony Ornato, the former Secret Service detail leader – in an unprecedented step – took temporary leave to become a White House political advisor.
Earlier this year, Ornato became White House deputy chief of staff where he helped coordinate the controversial June photoshoot where Trump walked from the White House across Lafayette Square with a bible after St. John’s church was set on fire in the midst of Black Lives Matter protests and riots.
Ornato was also responsible, by the request of the president, for helping organize and coordinate several Trump rallies during the pandemic, which were blamed for increasing the spread of the disease.