Los Angeles police and the California Highway Patrol are providing taxpayer-funded security for former Vice President Kamala Harris — a move that has infuriated the police union and some Republican lawmakers.
The use of state and local resources was likely requested by Harris and approved by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) after President Donald Trump revoked her Secret Service detail earlier this week.
The CHP is authorized to provide security for current and former California constitutional officers when a threat assessment deems it necessary. Harris, a former state constitutional officer, is receiving protection coordinated by the agency in response to current concerns, sources told the Washington Examiner.
Bass called Trump’s actions “another act of revenge following a long list of political retaliation in the forms of firings, the revoking of security clearances and more.”
“This puts the former Vice President in danger and I look forward to working with the Governor to make sure Vice President Harris is safe in Los Angeles,” she said.
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About a dozen LAPD officers have started working a detail to protect Harris, parking outside her Brentwood home. It’s unclear if they will be with her when she starts on her nationwide book tour, which begins at the end of the month in New York City.
The CHP and the LAPD have been tight-lipped on how long the around-the-clock security service will last and how much it will cost.
“We do not comment on security arrangements,” the CHP told the Washington Examiner, while the LAPD confirmed it was “assisting the California Highway Patrol in providing protective services for former Vice President Kamala Harris until an alternate plan is established. ”
“This temporary coordinated effort is in place to ensure that there is no lapse in security,” LAPD Communications Director Jennifer Forkish, told the Washington Examiner.
Spending money to protect Harris isn’t sitting well with some, including the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents rank-and-file LAPD officers.
“Pulling police officers from protecting everyday Angelenos to protect a failed presidential candidate who also happens to be a multi-millionaire, with multiple homes and who can easily afford to pay for her own security, is nuts,” the union said in a statement. It added that Bass “should tell Governor Newsom that if he wants to curry favor with Ms. Harris and her donor base, then he should open up his own wallet because LA taxpayers should not be footing the bill for this ridiculousness.”
Assemblyman Carl DeMaio (R-CA) also had an issue with it.
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“It will reduce public safety plain and simple,” he told the Washington Examiner. “It’s not even an argument. It’s not even debatable. How dare Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom shortchange Californians’ and Los Angelenos’ safety so that they can give a politician protection? Nobody cares about Kamala Harris. Nobody is threatening her. She isn’t being given any less security than any other vice president. Vice presidents lose their security after six months. That has been perfectly fine for the past 40 years but no, apparently Californians are going to be on the hook to cater to her as servants.”
Steve Hilton, who is running as a Republican candidate for governor, called Harris’s new security “completely outrageous and a corrupt abuse of public resources.”
“It’s just having insult added to injury when we’ve got the absolute underfunding of police departments across the state, we are way below capacity, in terms of the number of police and sheriff’s deputies we need to fight crime,” he told the Washington Examiner.
The Secret Service usually protects a former vice president for six months after they leave office, but former President Joe Biden had signed an order extending Harris’s protection for a year beyond that. Harris’s aides had asked Biden’s team to extend protection due to safety concerns. Without the extension, Harris’s protection would have ended in July.
A White House memorandum, signed by Trump, directed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “to discontinue any security-related procedures previously authorized by Executive Memorandum, beyond those required by law,” for Harris.
Trump also pulled protection from Mike Pompeo, one of his former secretaries of state; former aide Brian Hook; John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser; and Anthony Fauci, who received death threats when he oversaw the COVID-19 pandemic.
Not everyone is upset that Harris is getting star treatment on the public’s tab.
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Kaivan Shroff, a Democratic commentator and alumnus of the Hillary for America digital team, told the Washington Examiner that securing Harris’s safety is paramount.
“Yes, protecting our first black woman vice president, despite Trump’s antics, is a good use of funds,” he said. “Kamala Harris — like many Democrats — has a target on her back because of the rhetoric Trump, Vance and other MAGA electeds use. The reality is that less than 3 months ago, a deranged Trump supporter murdered Melissa Hortman and her husband and shot their dog.”