DHS considering Secret Service protection for Trump, Carson
The Department of Homeland Security is reviewing requests to provide Secret Service protection to GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson, a spokeswoman said Monday.
"The Department of Homeland Security has now received official requests for Secret Service protection from both the Carson and Trump campaigns and has taken them under review pursuant to the statutorily required process," DHS spokeswoman Marsha Catron said, in a statement to CBS News' Andres Triay.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson would determine whether to give the candidates Secret Service protection after consulting with congressional leaders and one other lawmaker they select.
On Monday, Fox News reported that the Secret Service sent letters to congressional leaders about the request. The report said the proposal would include a rotation of 260 Secret Service agents. Aides to Carson and Trump met with the Secret Service, the report added.
Carson has reportedly received an increasing number of threats against him, but he denied that his campaign had requested the protection. "Secret Service and the FBI came to our campaign and they said we needed Secret Service protection," Carson told reporters Monday, according to CBS News' Erica Brown. Asked whether there had been an increase in threats against him, he replied, "I don't know because I haven't seen the threats, and I don't care about them."
CBS News has also contacted the Trump campaign for a response. The Secret Service directed CBS News to the DHS statement.
Presidential candidates rarely receive Secret Service protection this early in a cycle. In early May 2007, more than a year away from the general election, however, then-Sen. Barack Obama received Secret Service protection on the campaign trail.
During the 2012 presidential campaign, the Secret Service began gradually ordering protection detail in November 2011 -- a year before the general election -- for GOP candidates Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has continued to receive Secret Service protection since she served as first lady.