The secret service agent in charge of the Denver district suggested in a Facebook post last Fall that she would not take a bullet to protect Donald Trump if he became president.
Agent Kerry O'Grady made the post in October. The Washington Examiner reported it Monday. It was one of several anti-Trump posts from O'Grady.
In one from October, she never directly names Donald Trump, saying she would "take jail time over a bullet or an endorsement for what I believe to be a disaster to this country." Her post also says, "I am with her," referring to a campaign slogan for Hillary Clinton.
It mentions the rules for political activity by federal employees, saying "Hatch Act be damned." O'Grady told the Examiner Monday she would not let her opinions affect her duty to protect President Trump.
The Washington Examiner quotes O'Grady as saying she took down the post in question after a few days. The newspaper isn't saying how it obtained the social media posts or why it published the story now.
O'Grady did help protect Trump and his family during campaign visits to Colorado in the fall, both before and after O'Grady's online comments. O'Grady served under presidents of both parties, having worked under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
“When you take the oath we are not political, we do not get involved in campaigns,” Larry Newman said, a retired Secret Service agent who worked under six presidents, from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan.
He's never forgotten one of the first things his supervisor told him when he started with the Service. “He pointed to the president's desk and said, ‘Remember this: it's the office not the person,’” Newman said, referring to the duty to protect whoever holds the office, no matter the party or the positions.
Newman said he was shocked to learn an active agent and supervisor would make a statement implying anything but support and protection. “It is the office, and Donald Trump is the President of The United States…so it is the obligation and the duty we are given to protect the president.”
