Biden to receive additional Secret Service protection: report

[Fox News, AP]

Biden’s ramped-up security will still be less than if he were the president-elect

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will receive a beefed-up Secret Service detail starting Friday as the candidates wait for the presidential race to be called, according to a report.

As of early Friday, several crucial battleground states, including Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada, remained undecided as mail-in ballots continued to be counted.

The agents will be sent to the Chase Center on the Riverfront convention center in Wilmington, Del., where Biden’s team has been headquartered since the campaign ended and were planning for a possible major speech later Friday, The Washington Post reported, citing two sources familiar with the situation.

Biden has had Secret Service protection since March when he emerged as the likely Democratic nominee but his ramped-up security will still be less than if he were the president-elect, the Post reported.

He previously had Secret Service protection until six months after he left the White House in 2017. All former vice presidents get protection for six additional months.

On normal Election Nights, when the race is called within hours of polls closing, the Secret Service detail is usually put together that night. But Biden will get the extra protection now because the race has continued to the end of the week.

A similar situation happened in the infamous 2000 election, which wasn’t decided for more than a month. Then-Vice President Al Gore continued to receive his VP protection until the race was finally called for Republican nominee George W. Bush in December, according to the Post. 

Meanwhile, President Trump’s campaign has mounted several legal challenges related to vote-counting in battleground states. 

As of early Friday morning, Biden had 264 electoral votes and Trump had 214, according to the Fox News Decision Desk.

Both the Secret Service and the Biden campaign declined to comment on the report for security reasons.

By Brie Stimson