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Drinking and driving is bad. Well, technically, even just drinking is bad, since alcohol is a known carcinogen, but when you throw driving into the mix, it gets much worse due to the whole, “could easily kill someone else” thing. Usually, though, drunk drivers don’t usually find themselves at risk of hitting Vice President Kamala Harris’ motorcade while driving the wrong way down a highway. On Tuesday night, a 55-year-old Wisconsin man is accused of doing exactly that, CNN reports. As you can imagine, things haven’t gone well for the alleged drunk driver.
The arrest took place at about 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday when the Vice President’s motorcade encountered an SUV driving the wrong way down Interstate 94 near downtown Milwaukee. Thankfully, deputies from the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office were able to stop the car in time, and it doesn’t appear that anyone was hurt. They reportedly claimed they suspected the driver was intoxicated and saw an unspecified open container of alcohol inside the car. Following a field sobriety test and other investigative measures, they arrested the man with recommended charges of driving while intoxicated and recklessly endangering safety.
A Secret Service spokesperson told CNN they are “aware of the incident involving a motorist traveling in the opposite direction on the highway while the Vice President was in her motorcade,” adding, “We are grateful to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office for its response which allowed them to stop the motorist and take the driver into custody for DUI.” There also doesn’t appear to be any indication that this incident was intentional or that Harris was a target.
This incident comes on the heels of an independent panel commissioned by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas concluded that Secret Service leadership needs “a complete overhaul.” In its report, the panel criticized the agency’s lack of “critical thinking,” as well as its “do more with less” attitude.
“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved,” it wrote in the report, adding, “Many of the issues that the Panel has identified throughout this report, particularly regarding the Panel’s ‘deeper concerns,’ are ultimately attributable, directly or indirectly, to the Service’s culture. A refreshment of leadership, with new perspectives, will contribute to the Service’s resolution of those issues.”
If it sounds like that’s a call for acting Director Ronald Rowe to lose his job, don’t worry, the panel doesn’t want him gone in the last two weeks of the election. “I don’t think anybody was intending that you would fire acting director Rowe and the leadership team now. It wouldn’t be in the country’s interest or the service’s interest. That is one of the longer-term recommendations,” one member told CNN.