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.
