Nikki Haley requests Secret Service protection
Written by ABC AUDIO on February 6, 2024
(WASHINGTON) — Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign has applied for Secret Service protection, according to a spokesperson with the campaign and another source familiar with the situation.
The campaign spokesperson did not say what prompted the request, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
But Haley, who is former President Donald Trump’s remaining major challenger in the 2024 Republican primary race, has faced some recent incidents including being the target of two “swatting” attempts at her home in South Carolina, according to records previously obtained by ABC News.
In both cases, police were falsely directed to her residence on suspicion of a crime. In one of the incidents, she has said, her parents were home with a caretaker when officers arrived with “guns drawn.”
“It put the law enforcement officers in danger, it put my family in danger and, you know, it was not a safe situation,” Haley said in an interview with NBC News last month.
“That’s what happens when you run for president,” she said then. “What I don’t want is for my kids to live like this.”
She added that she felt the “swatting” was evidence of the “chaos surrounding our country right now.” (Both cases have been administratively closed, without known arrests.)
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and a five-person advisory council that includes the leaders of both chambers of Congress will now begin a threat assessment as part of responding to Haley, according to the Secret Service website.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service did not comment.
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