Being ahead in the polls can come with a price: For Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson, it means there's enough of a threat to their safety that they've been approved to get Secret Service details "within days," The Washington Post reports. The decision was authorized by Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson.
Since the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968, nominated presidential candidates have been able to receive Secret Service protection while campaigning; during Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, when he was a senator, a new process was arranged for party frontrunners and those facing specific threats to be appointed extra protection (Obama got his in September 2007, over a year before election day).
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"I don't feel the need for it, quite frankly. But the Secret Service thinks that I need it," Carson told reporters back when he applied in October. Trump, however, didn't drag his feet on the decision.
"I want to put them on notice because they should have a liability. 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," Trump told The Hill at the time.
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