Secret Service investigating report agent left post to breastfeed during Trump campaign event
The incident in question took place on Wednesday at a campaign rally in Asheville, North Carolina
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Secret Service is investigating a report that a female agent reportedly left her post at a Trump campaign event in North Carolina to go breastfeed.
The Secret Service acknowledged the allegations and issued a statement to Fox News Digital stating that an investigation was underway.
"All employees of the U.S. Secret Service are held to the highest standards. While there was no impact to the North Carolina event, the specifics of this incident are being examined. Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further," a spokesperson for the agency said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The incident reportedly happened during former President Trump's campaign rally event in Asheville on Wednesday.
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Former President Trump arrives before speaking at a campaign rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday. (AP/Matt Kelley)
RealClearPolitics correspondent Susan Crabtree first reported the allegations and said that a female Secret Service agent had abandoned her post at Trump's event "to breastfeed with no permission/warning to the event site agent."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The site agent went to do one final sweep of the walking route and found the agent breast-feeding her child in a room that is supposed to be set aside for important Secret Service official work, i.e. a potential emergency related to the president," Crabtree wrote in a post on X.
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Crabtree added that a working agent on duty may not bring a child to a protective assignment. She said the agent in question was from the Atlanta Field Office.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This latest incident comes as the agency is facing heightened scrutiny in the wake of the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump, prompting more questions and concerns about the agency's culture and staffing.
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Former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Current and former USSS employees have voiced concerns about the agency being plagued by understaffing, even as its budget has increased to $3 billion. USSS leaders are being grilled not only on the failures on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, but also on their handling of their team's morale and their ability to recruit and retain talent.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Following the assassination attempt on the former president, the ensuing outrage forced ex-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who was appointed by President Biden in 2022, to resign. She was replaced by acting Director Ronald Rowe.
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Reports indicated that Trump had been denied requests for added Secret Service security on multiple occasions prior to the July 13 rally. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running as a third-party candidate, was also denied Secret Service protection before President Biden ordered the decision reversed days after the rally shooting.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News Digital's Christina Coulter and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.