Biden transition team demands change in Secret Service presidential detail due to concerns over Trump loyalists

The Biden transition team requested that the Secret Service change up the presidential detail to accommodate their fears that there are Trump loyalists among their current ranks.

In response, the Secret Service is planning on adding members of Biden's former vice presidential detail to his presidential detail upon his inauguration, the Washington Post reports.

The Biden transition team expressed their concerns about the possibility of having security detail members who are politically aligned with Trump.

The Secret Service is an apolitical arm of the Department of Homeland Security created to protect the President, his family, senior members of his administration, and visiting foreign leaders.

It is not the first time that an incoming Democratic presidential administration has been distrustful of the Secret Service, with Bill and Hillary Clinton having been notoriously paranoid of their security details. Fearing loyalty to former President George H.W. Bush, the Clintons believed that their Secret Service agents may have been responsible for some press leaks in their first months at the White House.

Those who allege that the Secret Service's presidential detail are loyal to Trump give as evidence that some Secret Service agents didn't wear face masks and urged others not to wear masks earlier during the pandemic,

Evidence is lacking, however, that this was at the direction of Trump, and some members of the Secret Service reportedly complained about the Trump White House's safety protocols.

Catherine Milhoan, spokeswoman for the Secret Service, disputed the allegations that the Secret Service has become politicized.

"The U.S. Secret Service is uniquely authorized to provide protection to designated U.S. and other world leaders and remains steadfastly dedicated to a standard of excellence in those operations, wholly apolitically and unaffiliated with the political parties of protectees,"

Milhoan said in a statement. "As a matter of practice and due to operational security, the agency does not comment on protective operations inclusive of internal decisions on agency assignments."

David Cho, who serves as second-in-command of Trump's security detail, will reportedly be running Biden's security detail, ensuring some continuity between the Secret Service details of the two administrations.