White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that the Secret Service was investigating a violent altercation between one of its agents and a photographer that occurred at a Virginia rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In his daily press briefing, Earnest praised the high quality of Secret Service agents’ work.
“And, you know, we’re certainly grateful for their service for that reason,” he said. “But I know that the Secret Service has also indicated that they’ll take a look into this particular situation and they’ll take appropriate action once the facts have been gathered.”
At a Trump event Monday at Radford University, a Secret Service agent slammed a Time magazine photographer to the ground when he tried to step outside of the press pen to cover protesters. Reporters who were present at the scene circulated video that showed the agent grabbing photographer Christopher Morris by the neck and shoving him to the floor.
The Secret Service released a statement shortly after the incident announcing that they were investigating “the exact circumstances” with the help of local law enforcement.
Roll the video----DUH!
Hey, you can’t blame the agents. They’re just gearing up for Sicherheitspolizei duty once Trump takes office.
I’m sorry but the SS is NOT a private police force for the candidates. They are there as a bodyguard. This BS of Trump corralling the press to a certain little space that he then points to and laughs and incites the ‘party faithful’ and then expecting the SS to ensure they don’t step out of that area is CRAP. This is REALLY taxpayer dollars that he’s manipulating while whining about that ol ‘big guvmint’…
The SS guy needs to be fired. I know what I saw in the full video and my eyes don’t lie. The man used excessive force and was working like some kind of sympathetic goon for the tRump campaign instead of doing his job. He should have been acting as an agent as part of a protective detail for the candidate, not going after the press unless they posed a direct threat to tRump…which the photographer clearly did not. Going after the press is not his job and restricting 1st Amendment rights is not his job either. Those press pens are disgusting to start off with, and should be eliminated if the forums are public events. With private events the candidate can do as he chooses in setting up the arrangement with the press…but public ones should be open to all, with free movement by the press not restricted by the tRump organizers.
Here let me help. The agent committed assault against the reporter because he said “fuck you”. Unacceptable