A female Secret Service agent on duty to protect former President Donald Trump at a North Carolina rally Wednesday left her post to breastfeed without permission, RealClearPolitics (RCP) reported.
Soon before Trump’s arrival in Asheville, North Carolina, the Secret Service site agent conducted a final sweep of the walking route “and found the agent breast-feeding her child in a room that is supposed to be set aside for important Secret Service official work, i.e. a potential emergency related to the president,” RCP’s Susan Crabtree posted Thursday on X.
The woman agent, out of the Atlanta Field Office, and two family members bypassed the Uniformed Division checkpoint and were escorted by “unpinned” event staff into the room to breastfeed, sources told RCP.
Unpinned means they had not been cleared to be there by the Secret Service.
A Secret Service spokesman said the incident did not have an impact on the event and is under review.
“All employees of the U.S. Secret Service are held to the highest standards,” spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, RCP reported. “While there was no impact to the North Carolina event, the specifics of this incident are being examined. Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further.”
Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 when he was shot in the ear, a spectator was killed, and two others were wounded. The alleged would-be assassin was shot and killed by law enforcement personnel.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned July 23 after the agency came under scrutiny for its failure to stop the shooter at the Trump rally.
Cheatle faced bipartisan condemnation when she appeared before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, declining to answer questions from frustrated lawmakers about the security plan for the rally and how law enforcement responded to the suspicious behavior of the gunman. Her resignation came less than 24 hours later.
🚨🚨EXCLUSIVE and BREAKING: During a Donald Trump visit to North Carolina yesterday, a woman Secret Service special agent abandoned her post to breastfeed with no permission/warning to the event site agent, according to three sources in the Secret Service community.
Shortly… pic.twitter.com/lkfhhLcA0B
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) August 15, 2024
The tweet reads in full:
EXCLUSIVE and BREAKING: During a Donald Trump visit to North Carolina yesterday, a woman Secret Service special agent abandoned her post to breastfeed with no permission/warning to the event site agent, according to three sources in the Secret Service community.
Shortly before Trump’s motorcade arrival — I’m told five minutes beforehand — the site agent was getting ready for the arrival. (The site agent is the person in charge of the entire event’s security.)
The site agent went to do one final sweep of the walking route and found the agent breast-feeding her child in a room that is supposed to be set aside for important Secret Service official work, i.e. a potential emergency related to the president.
A working agent on duty cannot bring a child to a protective assignment. The woman was out of the Atlanta Field Office.
The woman agent was in the room with two other family members.
The agent and her family members bypassed the Uniformed Division checkpoint and were escorted by an unpinned event staff into the room to breastfeed, the sources said. Unpinned means they have not been cleared by the Secret Service to be there.
When contacted about the incident, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the incident did not have an impact on the event. and it’s under review.
“All employees of the U.S. Secret Service are held to the highest standards,” he said. “While there was no impact to the North Carolina event, the specifics of this incident are being examined. Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further.”