A minor automobile accident involving Vice President Harris was initially reported by the Secret Service as a “mechanical failure.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and the director of the Secret Service have both reportedly expressed concerns over the report of an accident that happened on Monday involving the SUV Harris was traveling in to the White House, according to The Washington Post.
The one-car collision that occurred in the Washington, D.C., motorcade carrying Harris to work left no one hurt, but the vice president’s SUV was said to have experienced a mechanical issue.
It was later revealed that the driver of the SUV had hit a curb in a tunnel, damaging the vehicle’s tire so badly it had to be replaced, according to two people familiar with the incident.
The accident happened near Foggy Bottom at about 10:20 a.m., said the people, who spoke to the Post to share internal discussions on the condition of anonymity.
Harris was transferred to another vehicle in the motorcade so agents could safely take her on to the White House.
According to the Post, the Secret Service also failed to note key details of the incident in an electronic message alerting senior leadership to the motorcade’s delay.
The agency’s protective intelligence division reported “a mechanical failure” in the lead car had been the reason Harris was transferred to another vehicle, according to details of the alert shared with Post.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Hill that the accident resulted from “a minor overcorrection” when the driver hit a curb and that, although initial radio traffic suggested a mechanical failure, agents later reported the “additional pertinent facts” to agency higher-ups, including the agency’s director Kim Cheatle, after Harris had been delivered to her destination.