The campaigns for Donald Trump and Ben Carson have requested Secret Service protection, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman told CNN Monday.
The requests from Carson and Trump — who are currently dominating the Republican field — will be reviewed by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson in consultation with a congressional panel comprised of Republicans and Democrats from the House and Senate, DHS spokeswoman Marsha Catron said.
Carson told reporters Monday that the Secret Service believes he needs the protection.
“I don’t feel the need for it, quite frankly. But the Secret Service thinks that I need it. So, you know, it is what it is,” Carson said during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas.
Trump said last week that if he were a Democrat he would have received Secret Service protection by now. President Barack Obama first received Secret Service protection on May 3, 2007, a few months into his first campaign for president.
“I want to put them on notice because they should have a liability,” Trump told The Hill last week. “Personally, I think if Obama were doing as well as me, he would’ve had Secret Service [earlier]. I have by far the biggest crowds.”
On Tuesday, a DHS official said the process to grant protection is “expedited as quickly as reasonably practicable.”
But, the official said, “We don’t discuss protective detail in greater detail because of certain security concerns.”
