Breaking news Monday morning featured a surprising story out of Washington.

Surprising for several reasons.

Seems that around midnight Sunday, the Secret Service detail protecting Naomi Biden saw three people trying to break into a government-owned SUV parked in Georgetown. One of the agents opened fire but didn’t hit anyone.

Secret Service vehicles are not run-of-the-mill SUVs. They are mobile armories. Imagine if a trio of DC car-stealing hairbags got hold of one of those.

It did not appear that the president’s granddaughter was the target of the criminals. This was just another night in the crime-ridden District of Columbia where there have been 651 carjackings so far this year and a record-breaking 6,055 stolen cars.

It surprised some of us to learn that Naomi Biden Neal has 24/7 Secret Service protection. Of course, living in D.C., she needs it. Washington boasts the highest crime rate in the country.

At 29, she’s Hunter’s oldest child. She and her husband, Peter Neal, lived at the White House with her grandparents for a time before their Rose Garden wedding two years ago. They now reside in Georgetown. As a member of the Biden family, Naomi - a Washington lawyer - has a full-time Secret Service detail assigned to her. So do about 32 other members of Biden’s family and select administration members, according to The Washington Post.

In fact, all of the Biden grandchildren have Secret Service protection. All except one, perhaps.

You know where this is going.

Navy Joan Roberts, the 5-year-old child of Hunter and Lunden Roberts, lives in Arkansas with her single mother. Hunter - an all-around bum - refused to accept that the little towhead was his until DNA proved his paternity. At last report he still had not met his daughter.

The president, who dotes on six of his grandchildren, refused to acknowledge Navy Joan until July 28, 2023, exactly 20 days after New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote a scathing column that scolded Biden for shunning an innocent child.

Dowd’s piece that shamed the president into finally admitting the little girl was his granddaughter was headlined “It’s Seven Grandchildren, Mr. President.”

Sheesh. What a family.

The Biden family still seems distanced from the child. In fact, earlier this year Hunter Biden asked a court to prohibit the girl from using the Biden name.

While it’s unclear if Secret Service protection came with the president’s belated acknowledgment of the child, Navy Joan did not have Secret Service protection in June of 2022. That’s when her frightened mother asked an Arkansas court for a protective order after her ex-fiance repeatedly threatened both her and her child.

The Daily Mail reported at the time that Joe Biden had refused to extend protection to the little girl in Arkansas.

The cost of protecting the Bidens, as it was for the Trump family - who traveled extensively during the previous administration - is considerable. For instance, ABC reported in 2022 that Secret Service agents protecting Hunter Biden in his fancy Malibu digs, where he presumably got high and ran his influence-peddling syndicate, spent $30,000 a month to rent a house next door.

The Bidens’ weekend trips to Delaware are pricey, too. In 2021, The New York Post reported that just 16 weekend trips to Biden’s Delaware houses cost taxpayers $1.96 million for protection alone.

The first president to have Secret Service protection was Teddy Roosevelt, after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. According to its website, the Secret Service was formed in 1865 as part of the U.S. Treasury Department. The job of the agency was to thwart counterfeiting, which was rampant: “Following the Civil War, it was estimated that one-third to one-half of the currency in circulation was counterfeit.”

Footnote: Ex-presidents and their wives are protected by the agency for life. Richard Nixon is the only former president to relinquish Secret Service protection. He opted to hire private security in 1985.