A suspected drunk driver nearly ran into Kamala Harris’ motorcade in Milwaukee on Monday night following a campaign event.
A 55-year-old Milwaukee man, who has not been publicly identified, was traveling west in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 94, authorities said. The man managed to enter the otherwise closed highway while driving in the wrong direction.
Cops found an open beer can in the man’s car, and he failed field sobriety tests, according to local ABC affiliate WISN. Authorities were still waiting Wednesday morning for his blood-alcohol test results.
The man told police he had no idea he was driving the wrong way on the highway and didn’t even remember entering the road. He told officers he had no intention of harming Harris.
Video showed the man driving slowly in the left lanes (the right side of the road from his perspective) while the vice president’s motorcade powered past in the other lanes. He was stopped by a Milwaukee County sheriff’s deputy trailing Harris’ vehicle.
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of the incident involving a motorist traveling in the opposite direction on the highway while the Vice President was in her motorcade,” the agency told WISN. “We are grateful to the Milwaukee Sheriff’s Office for their response which allowed them to stop the motorist and take the driver into custody for DUI.”
The man was expected to face a second-degree reckless endangerment charge in addition to a DUI charge, police said.
Harris was leaving a campaign event in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield. By Tuesday afternoon, she was back in Washington, D.C., for an interview with NBC News.
Monday night’s near collision was the second motorcade incident for the Democratic ticket in Milwaukee this year. Press vans following vice presidential candidate Tim Walz were rear-ended in the city in September.