A protester carrying a sign and apparently a holstered firearm was seen near the Wilmington, Delaware, home where President Joe Biden was staying Sunday.
According to multiple media reports, a reporter on the scene described the man as wearing a neon yellow-and-orange safety vest, khaki cargo shorts, tan boots, and socks. The man was walking down a road toward Biden’s home, and the unidentified reporter said the man appeared to have a gun holstered to his belt.
Delaware is an open-carry state.he man carried a sign that read, “Bidens are criminals, 20 shell companies?! Where’s the laptop? 10% for the big guy” on one side and “Joe has aliases?! Robert L. Peters, Robin Ware, JRN Ware” on the other.
The reporter said a Secret Service vehicle was seen following the man down the road, but it was not known whether he was asked to leave or taken away. Another report said reporters “could see the protester down the road and the [president’s] motorcade passed right by him.”
“The individual expressing his constitutional rights had no impact on any of the Secret Service’s protectees’ movements,” said Secret Service spokesperson Steve Kopek, according to Newsweek.
Biden arrived in Wilmington on Friday, attended a church service Saturday, and returned to the White House on Sunday before traveling to New York ahead of the U.N. General Assembly. Biden and his family regularly take weekend trips to his Wilmington residence or the Rehoboth area of Delaware, a quiet seaside town where the president does not typically draw large crowds when he emerges in public.
The incident occurred two days after an armed man accused of impersonating a federal officer was taken into custody Friday outside a theater in Los Angeles where Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was set to give a speech. Kennedy’s campaign said his requests for Secret Service protection have been rejected, and he plans to apply again this month.
“I’m still entertaining a hope that President Biden will allow me Secret Service protection,” Kennedy, whose father and uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, were assassinated, posted Saturday on X. “I am the first presidential candidate in history to whom the White House has denied a request for protection.”