Video of Kamala Harris and protester from before Secret Service protection | Fact check
The claim: Video shows Secret Service failing to protect Kamala Harris in 2023
A July 16 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a video of Vice President Kamala Harris sitting on a stage when a man approaches her and grabs the microphone from her hands.
“Ms. Harris, let this be a lesson that they don't care about your life,” says a narrator in the video, which is labeled as being from 2023. “Where the hell is your Secret Service? Somebody should’ve hanglide (sic) on a Dorito and stopped that fool. But yeah, nobody showed up until the last minute when you had to remove yourself from the situation. You the vice president of a whole nation, and this is the response?”
The video was shared more than 1,000 times in less than a week.
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Our rating: False
The incident happened five years ago when Harris was a 2020 presidential candidate, not in 2023 during her vice presidency. The Secret Service can protect major presidential candidates, but the incident occurred long before the agency would have been protecting her.
Incident occurred before the Secret Service protected Harris
The Instagram clip comes from June 1, 2019, when Harris was a U.S. senator and running for president. Harris was being interviewed at a "Big Ideas Forum" held by MoveOn, a political action committee. One of the moderators was MoveOn’s then-chief of public affairs officer, Karine Jean-Pierre.
Harris was about to answer a question about the country’s gender pay gap when the protester came on stage and grabbed her microphone. He was later identified as an animal rights activist from the organization Direct Action Everywhere, which claimed responsibility for the incident.
Jean-Pierre, now the White House press secretary, and other staff members tried to grab the microphone from the man as Harris walked away. She returned after staff and audience members – including her husband Doug Emhoff – dragged the protester offstage.
Harris wasn’t the vice president then, so the Secret Service would not have protected her in that capacity, contrary to the claim made in the Instagram post. The agency does protect presidential and vice presidential candidates, but not so early on in the race.
According to the Secret Service’s FAQ page, it is authorized to protect “major presidential and vice presidential candidates and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election.” It defines major candidates as those identified by the secretary of Homeland Security and an advisory committee.
The 2019 incident took place more than a year before the 120-day mark, so there wouldn't have been agents present. Harris dropped out of the race in December 2019, also before she would have qualified for Secret Service protection.
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Joseph Routh, spokesperson for the Secret Service, told USA TODAY that the agency did not protect Harris until Aug. 14, 2020, after she became then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s pick for vice president.
Harris has retained protection throughout her term in the White House. On July 21, she announced she was running in the 2024 presidential election after Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources:
Joseph Routh, July 19, Phone interview with USA TODAY
MoveOn, accessed May 9, 2019, Castro, Gillibrand, Harris, Sanders, and Warren To Appear On Stage At MoveOn’s “Big Ideas Forum” June 1 In San Francisco
MoveOn (YouTube), June 2, 2019, Full Video: Sen. Kamala Harris at MoveOn’s Big Ideas Forum
Secret Service, accessed July 19, Frequently Asked Questions About Us
CNN, Aug. 17, 2020, First on CNN: Kamala Harris chooses ‘Pioneer’ as her Secret Service code name
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamala Harris wasn't protected by Secret Service in 2019 | Fact check