According to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office, an incident occurred just before 8:30 PM local time (1:30 AM GMT) when officers observed a man driving an SUV westbound in the eastbound lane of Interstate 94.
The driver was stopped as he neared the motorcade of Vice President Kamala Harris.
An arrest report from local news station WISN indicates that when a deputy informed the man he had “almost struck a vehicle in the VPOTUS’s motorcade,” he appeared extremely surprised and claimed not to remember entering the freeway.
He also asserted that he had no intention of harming Vice President Harris or anyone associated with her campaign.
The report noted that the man failed multiple field sobriety tests, but no injuries were reported as a result of the incident.
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Kamala Harris was in Milwaukee to campaign alongside former Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service acknowledged the incident involving the driver traveling in the wrong direction while the Vice President was in her motorcade. The agency expressed gratitude to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office for their prompt response, which led to the motorist’s arrest for DUI.
The BBC has reached out to the Harris campaign for comments on the situation.
In a related incident from September, vans traveling with Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, were involved in an accident in the Milwaukee area. Those vehicles were at the rear of the motorcade and were carrying members of the press. Reporters described being “violently thrown forward” after being hit from behind, resulting in at least one injury.
This recent event comes as the Secret Service faces what acting director Ronald Rowe has termed a “heightened threat environment” in the lead-up to the November 5 election.
