Armed intruder arrested at Joint Base Andrews as vice president departs, while 2nd intruder escapes

Shortly after Vice President Kamala Harris and several members of President Biden's Cabinet arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Sunday night, a vehicle drove through a security checkpoint at the base, according to Joint Base Andrews and NPR's Scott Detrow, who was traveling with Harris. When guards deployed barriers, two individuals got out and one of them, armed with a weapon, was arrested. The other escaped.

Joint Base Andrews said in an update late Sunday night that "a full sweep has been conducted" and the search parties "found evidence that the base intruder departed the installation."

"The incident appeared to be one of the most serious breaches of security in memory at Andrews, which is a few miles outside Washington," The Washington Post reports. The White House said Harris and the Cabinet officials who traveled with her to Selma, Alabama — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Housing Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, and EPA Administrator Michael Regan — all left the base safely.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The intruders drove onto the base at "approximately 9 p.m.," Joint Base Andrews said. Air Force Two arrived from Selma at 8:47 p.m., CNN reports, citing the pool report, and Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff were on Marine Two about 8:51 p.m. and had left the base by 9.

Biden flew directly to the White House from Wilmington, Delaware, on Marine One, so he did not stop at Joint Base Andrews.