A video circulating on Instagram claims to show Vice President Kamala Harris being failed by the Secret Service in 2023, as a man approaches her on stage and grabs the microphone from her. However, the incident actually occurred in 2019 when Harris was a U.S. senator and a presidential candidate. The Secret Service did not protect Harris during this time as it only provides protection to major presidential and vice-presidential candidates within 120 days of a general election.
The incident took place during a “Big Ideas Forum” organized by MoveOn, where a protester from an animal rights organization interrupted Harris while she was being interviewed. Harris was not the vice president at the time, so she was not under Secret Service protection. The agency only began protecting her in 2020 when she became the vice-presidential candidate alongside Joe Biden.
The video’s claim that the Secret Service failed to protect Harris in 2023 is false as the agency did not have any obligation to protect her during the 2019 incident depicted in the video. Harris has had Secret Service protection since becoming the vice-presidential candidate in 2020 and has retained that protection throughout her term in the White House.
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