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Nikki Haley Requests
In a recent development, Nikki Haley, a contender for the Republican presidential nomination and Donald Trump’s former primary adversary, has requested security protection from the American Secret Service, as reported by the campaign on Monday.
While the campaign did not disclose any specific threats prompting the request, it’s worth noting that the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was targeted in two “swatting” incidents, once on December 30 and again on January 1, as initially reported by Reuters.
In recent days, demonstrators opposing Nikki Haley’s support for additional military aid to Ukraine or her backing of Trump’s candidacy have regularly disrupted her events in South Carolina.
Haley is currently campaigning in the state ahead of the primary elections on February 24, where she served as governor from 2011 to 2017.
The Secret Service often provides security to major presidential candidates in both primary and general elections. According to federal regulations, such security should be authorized by the Secretary of Homeland Security upon recommendation from the Congressional Advisory Committee, composed of five members from both the Senate and House of Representatives, including top Democrats and Republicans.
The Department of Homeland Security has not commented immediately on Nikki Haley’s security request, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Filing false reports to law enforcement to generate potentially dangerous responses is considered swatting. Legal experts view it as a form of threat or intimidation, increasingly used against prominent figures, including officials involved in civil and criminal cases against Trump.
According to an email obtained by Reuters in January, the federal investigation bureau was monitoring one of those fake calls, which led to an attack on Haley’s South Carolina residence in December, with the intent to “assess the threat.”
Haley mentioned that her parents were at home during the December incident.
According to averages compiled by the election analysis website Five Thirty Eight, in the November general election, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is leading Trump by more than 56 percent over Haley in a potential match-up. Trump holds an approximate 32-point lead over Biden in South Carolina.