Nikki Haley Wants Secret Service Protection, Citing Increase in Threats
Nikki Haley has submitted a request for Secret Service protection amid a rise in threats, the Haley campaign confirmed to The Daily Beast on Monday.
The former United Nations ambassador first revealed the move in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, saying the campaign has had “multiple issues” with security. Several of Haley’s events in New Hampshire were disrupted by protesters, and her campaign security tackled a woman when she tried to rush the stage at an event in Columbia, South Carolina last week.
Aside from her increasingly direct criticisms of former President Donald Trump, Haley’s time at the U.N.—and specifically her adversarial relationship with Iran—could also be a factor, according to the Journal.
Haley’s campaign did not elaborate on the reasons behind its call for Secret Service protection.
Normally, presidential candidates do not receive the agency’s protection until they have mathematically clinched a major party’s nomination. The notable exception to the norm was former President Barack Obama when he was a senator during his 2008 campaign.
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also called for Secret Service protection. He falsely claimed all candidates have gotten it ever since “the assassination of my father [Sen. Robert F. Kennedy] in 1968.”
“Every presidential administration for 55 years has afforded early protection to candidates who requested it,” his campaign said in a statement following the arrest of a stalker outside his home last October. “The Biden administration is the sole outlier.”
Should Haley receive Secret Service protection, it would alter the types of events she can do. Trump still has Secret Service protection, and the agency—which is technically under the purview of the Treasury Department—still conducts sweeps and maintains a metal detector perimeter at all Trump rallies.
“It’s not going to stop me from doing what I need to do,” Haley said in the WSJ interview.
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