Secret Service Response to Joe Biden Motorcade Accident Raises Questions 

Social media users have raised questions about the Secret Service's response after a car plowed into a parked SUV that was guarding President Joe Biden's motorcade on Sunday night.

Biden was walking from his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, to his waiting armored SUV when a sedan hit a U.S. Secret Service vehicle that was being used to close off intersections near the office for the president's departure, The Associated Press reported.

The sedan tried to continue into a closed-off intersection before Secret Service personnel surrounded the vehicle with guns drawn and instructed the driver to put his hands up.

A video posted on X, formerly Twitter, by journalist Max Lewis, shows Biden paused and looked over to the sound of the crash before being ushered into his vehicle.

"An SUV in President Biden's motorcade was hit by a vehicle as he was leaving his campaign headquarters in Delaware tonight," Lewis wrote in the post. "Secret service agents surrounded the car with guns drawn as Biden was ushered into his vehicle. You can hear the crash about 9 seconds in."

First Lady Jill Biden was already seated in the president's vehicle and they were driven back to their home, the AP reported. Both were unharmed.

In a statement provided to Newsweek, Special Agent Steve Kopek, a Secret Service spokesperson, said "a Secret Service vehicle securing the President's motorcade route was struck by another vehicle" in Wilmington.

"There was no protective interest associated with this event and the President's motorcade departed without incident. Additional questions pertaining to this incident should be directed to Wilmington Police Department."

A spokesperson for the Wilmington Police Department told Newsweek that the department is "investigating the motor vehicle collision, which did not result in any injuries." They added: "Investigators are also working to determine if impairment was a factor."

On social media, many users said that Secret Service agents had been slow in their response to the incident.

"An SUV in Biden's motorcade was hit as he was leaving his campaign HQs in DE. Biden freezes at the sound. Secret Service, guns out, surround the car, but it takes a long time. Not good," journalist Victoria Brownworth wrote in a post.

In another post, she said the response by the Secret Service "needs reviewing." Biden "should have been surrounded instantly," she added.

The Secret Service "needs some retraining on their response time," another person wrote. "The president should have been in the car immediately. That's unacceptable."

Another wrote: "Seriously, that reaction was so slow, not a single secret service member put himself between the POTUS and the threat and they all looked absolutely confused at what to do."

The Secret Service "reacted like untrained idiots, just standing there," another person commented. "They showed absolutely zero instinct to protect Biden. The moment that boom happened they should have surrounded him tightly & gotten him moving."

The Secret Service, which is tasked with protecting the nation's leaders and their families, has been the target of scrutiny since it emerged that agents deleted text messages that were sent and received around the time of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol despite requests from Congress and federal investigators that they be preserved, prompting allegations of a cover-up.

It also emerged that the Secret Service had identified a threat to then Speaker Nancy Pelosi two days before the January 6 attack, but did not pass it along to the Capitol Police until after the Capitol was stormed.

Questions about security on January 6, 2021, were also raised after it was reported that then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris drove within several yards of a pipe bomb outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters on January 6. The Secret Service had swept the interior of the building, the driveway, parking deck and entrances and exits prior to her arrival, CNN reported, but apparently missed the bomb.

Update 12/18/23, 8:08 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add a statement from a Secret Service spokesperson.

Update 12/19/23, 6:09 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add a statement from a Wilmington Police Department spokesperson.