Hillary Clinton did not have 65 Secret Service agents protecting her in Canada on Wednesday, a Secret Service source told CNN, despite a report from a Canadian radio station to the contrary.
And the head of TCU Place, the venue for Clinton’s event, now says the comment that came from a venue employee was incorrect.
News Talk 980 CJME, a local radio station in Saskatoon, reported on Wednesday night that a security supervisor from the venue hosting Clinton said “approximately 65 agents” were in house to protect the former first lady.
The news ballooned on Thursday morning when the conservative Weekly Standard cited the radio station in a post, the influential Drudge Report linked to the story and the anti-Clinton super PAC America Rising blasted an email to reporters about Clinton’s “army of Secret Service agents, paid for at taxpayer expense.”
All of this, however, was incorrect, says a source at the Secret Service.
“Although it’s our policy not to discuss specific security measures, in this instance we can say this number is grossly inaccurate and exaggerated,” the source said.
Bob Korol, the CEO of TCU Place, told CNN on Friday morning that the statement that 65 agents were protecting Clinton was a “miscomment” by the security supervisor.
“It was a miscomment,” said Korol, who said the security supervisor was not the director of security and would not have been privy to those numbers.
“I don’t know exactly how many it was,” Korol said. “But I don’t think it was 65.”
A Clinton spokesman declined to comment and referred CNN to the Secret Service.
Because Clinton is a former first lady and secretary of state, she regularly travels with a cadre of agents who protect her wherever she goes. When Clinton is traveling for speaking engagements and events, her personal protection is regularly increased by local agents.