
Senate unanimously passes bill guaranteeing same level of Secret Service protection for Trump, Biden and Harris
CNN
The Senate unanimously passed a bill guaranteeing that former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris receive the same level of Secret Service protection as a sitting president.
The Senate unanimously passed a bill guaranteeing that former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris receive the same level of Secret Service protection as a sitting president. Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida brought the legislation to the floor almost days after the House of Representatives passed it unanimously, 405-0. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature. “Passing the act today with unanimous consent of the Senate sends an important message to the American public and the world that we will not ignore these threats, which are truly an attack on our Democratic process, and have rightly shocked the world,” Scott said in a statement. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut chose not to object, though he noted that he doesn’t believe it changes the way that the Secret Service assesses threats. “Let’s move ahead with this bill,” Murphy said. “I don’t think it actually solves the problem; let’s pass the additional money so that they have everything they need, the Secret Service, in order to get the job done, and then let’s sit down and have a broader conversation about why we have seen this spike in political violence, and what other ways Republicans and Democrats can come together.” The Secret Service is under scrutiny in Congress after two apparent assassination attempts on Trump, the first on July 13 at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and the second on September 15 at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida.

More than two decades ago, on January 24, 2004, I landed in Baghdad as a legal adviser, assigned an office in what was then known as the Green Zone. It was raining and cold, and my duffle bag was thrown into a puddle off the C-130 aircraft that had just done a corkscrew dive to reach the runway without risk of ground fire. Young American soldiers greeted me as we piled into a vehicle, sped out of the airport complex and then along a road called the “Highway of Death” due to car bombs and snipers.












