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Cain to Receive Secret Service Protection
- By Williams Ekanem
- Published November 21st, 2011
- Washington File
- Unrated
Herman Cain will be the first of the Republican candidates to receive Secret Service protection, according to the Secret Service.
Reports in Washington D.C over the weekend said Cain’s campaign requested the protection and it was authorized by a congressional advisory committee and Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano. That committee is tasked with identifying “major” candidates in need of protection.
“Secretary Napolitano at the request of the Cain campaign consulted with congressional advisory committee which authorized protection for Cain,” George Ogilvy, a spokesman for the Secret Service, told ABC News.
It is not clear whether the candidate requested the protection because of a specific security concern.
While Cain is receiving protection early - the committee does not usually assign protection until four months before the general election - the move is not unprecedented. President Barack Obama received protection in May 2007, 18 months before the general election. Hillary Clinton, Obama’s leading primary opponent, was already under protection as a former first lady.
Some campaigns have been eager to be assigned the protection in the past, figuring that the presence of the Secret Service gave their campaigns a sense of legitimacy - and shifted the cost of security from the campaign to the federal government. But the last GOP nominee - Arizona Sen. John McCain - refused protection early in the 2008 contest, saying that the Secret Service detail was intrusive and a waste of taxpayer dollars.
The federal agency, tasked with protecting the president and preventing the circulation of counterfeit currency, made headlines earlier this week when they arrested 21-year-old Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez in Pennsylvania. Ortega-Hernandez is suspected of firing a gun twice at the White House late last week, breaking a window on the residential level of the building.
Cain has been under intense criticism on alleged sexual misconduct although the allegations have not really affected his rating in the Republican Presidential race.
Reports in Washington D.C over the weekend said Cain’s campaign requested the protection and it was authorized by a congressional advisory committee and Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano. That committee is tasked with identifying “major” candidates in need of protection.
“Secretary Napolitano at the request of the Cain campaign consulted with congressional advisory committee which authorized protection for Cain,” George Ogilvy, a spokesman for the Secret Service, told ABC News.
It is not clear whether the candidate requested the protection because of a specific security concern.
While Cain is receiving protection early - the committee does not usually assign protection until four months before the general election - the move is not unprecedented. President Barack Obama received protection in May 2007, 18 months before the general election. Hillary Clinton, Obama’s leading primary opponent, was already under protection as a former first lady.
Some campaigns have been eager to be assigned the protection in the past, figuring that the presence of the Secret Service gave their campaigns a sense of legitimacy - and shifted the cost of security from the campaign to the federal government. But the last GOP nominee - Arizona Sen. John McCain - refused protection early in the 2008 contest, saying that the Secret Service detail was intrusive and a waste of taxpayer dollars.
The federal agency, tasked with protecting the president and preventing the circulation of counterfeit currency, made headlines earlier this week when they arrested 21-year-old Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez in Pennsylvania. Ortega-Hernandez is suspected of firing a gun twice at the White House late last week, breaking a window on the residential level of the building.
Cain has been under intense criticism on alleged sexual misconduct although the allegations have not really affected his rating in the Republican Presidential race.
