Kam’s husband rushed out of D.C. event after bomb threat
Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff was hustled out of an event at a Washington, D.C., high school by Secret Service agents after officials received a bomb threat Tuesday afternoon.
The husband of Vice President Kamala Harris was at Dunbar High School in Northwest Washington for an event in commemoration of Black History Month. He was in the school’s museum for about five minutes before a member of his security detail approached him, saying, “We have to go.” Emhoff left the building and into his waiting motorcade.
Students and educators were instructed to leave the school, with an overhead announcement saying, “Evacuate the building.”
District of Columbia Public Schools spokesman Enrique Gutierrez, who was at Dunbar for Emhoff’s appearance, said there had been a bomb threat. It was not known how the threat was received, or whether it was related to Emhoff’s visit or
Black History Month.
Emhoff spokeswoman Katie Peters said the school alerted the Secret Service about what she termed a “security incident or a report of a potential security incident.”
“U.S. Secret Service was made aware of a security threat at a school where the @SecondGentleman was meeting with students and faculty,” Peters added in a later tweet. “Mr. Emhoff is safe and the school has been evacuated. We are grateful to Secret Service and D.C. police for their work.”
According to a White House official, Emhoff resumed his schedule and returned to the vice president’s residence.
This incident follows last week’s bomb threats against at least 17 historically Black colleges and universities across the U.S. According to NBC News, the FBI has identified six persons of interest around the country, all juveniles, who are suspected of making the threats. The official says they appear to be “tech savvy,” using sophisticated methods to try to disguise the source of the threats, which appear to have a racist motivation.