Nikki Haley asks for Secret Service protection after increase in threats

Donald Trump’s last major opponent has been the target of threats and protests; her work at the UN involving Iran could also be a factor.

US Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley speaks at a rally in South Carolina. Picture: AFP.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has applied for Secret Service protection because of increasing threats she has received as Donald Trump’s last major opponent for the 2024 GOP nomination.

Haley confirmed the application for protection in an interview Monday afternoon with The Wall Street Journal.

“We’ve had multiple issues,” the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador said after a campaign event here. “It’s not going to stop me from doing what I need to do.”

A request for her protection has been submitted to federal officials, and her campaign is thinking about how more intense security would affect her campaign schedule and travels. Haley’s work at the United Nations involving Iran could also be a factor.

Her campaign didn’t immediately respond to a query seeking additional details about the threats she has received.

Late last week in Columbia, S.C., a woman was tackled by a member of Haley’s private security detail when she tried to rush the stage. There have also been protesters in recent days at her events upset about her support for Ukraine and Israel.

Nikki Haley takes pictures with young attendees at the conclusion of a campaign rally in Charleston, South Carolina. Picture: Getty Images via AFP.

Haley was asked at a news conference late last week about greater levels of security at her events in this state, which will hold the next seriously contested GOP primary on Feb. 24, as compared with those in Iowa and New Hampshire.

“When you do something like this, you get threats,” she told reporters. “It’s just the reality.” Haley said there has been the need to “put a few more bodies around us,” but that it hadn’t affected her campaigning.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to go out there and touch every hand, we’re going to answer every question, we’re going to make sure that we are there and doing everything that we need to,” she said.

Haley’s South Carolina home was also the subject of at least one recent swatting incident, where a person falsely reports a crime in progress to draw law enforcement to a particular location. She told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that she wasn’t home at the time of the incident, but that her elderly parents and their caregiver were there.

On a separate question, Haley told the WSJ she didn’t necessarily agree with Trump’s suggestion in a weekend Fox News interview that Ronna McDaniel should be replaced as the head of the Republican National Committee. McDaniel has said that Haley should get out of the race so that the GOP can unify around Trump.

“I will let the party decide who should stay or who should go,” Haley said in the interview. “What I do know is that we don’t do coronations in America and asking me to leave the race was wrong.”

Dow Jones