House Democrats Request Secret Service for 2020 Candidates

(Bloomberg) -- House Democrats requested Secret Service protection Wednesday for presidential candidates amid security concerns after a group of protesters stormed the stage at a Joe Biden campaign event on Tuesday.

“I urge you to immediately initiate the consultation process to determine whether to provide USSS protection to certain major Democratic presidential candidates,” Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, wrote in a letter Wednesday that specifically mentions Biden and Bernie Sanders.

The letter is addressed to Acting Department Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and members of a special congressional “Candidate Protection Advisory Committee” made up of the top Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate.

That committee must recommend protection be offered before DHS can act. Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said the agency “has not received a recommendation from Congress concerning any candidate.”

“We stand ready to execute if recommended,” she said.

An official familiar with that special committee said such decisions are made by the top four Senate and House leaders in consultation with the DHS secretary and the Secret Service.

The official said candidates or their campaigns must request protection unless they already have residual protection as former first lady Hillary Clinton did in 2016. There have been no such requests made yet, said the person.

Earlier, Louisiana Representative Cedric Richmond, a co-chair of the campaign and a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said on a press call hosted by Biden’s campaign that the “Democratic Congress is worried about” the candidates’ safety.

Richmond said the request asks the agency to give “all the presidential candidates Secret Service protection through the end of the campaign,” he said, suggesting that it would also apply to Elizabeth Warren and Tulsi Gabbard, if they stay in the race despite being far behind in the delegate count.

On Tuesday night, four protesters from the group Direct Action Everywhere approached the stage in Los Angeles where Biden was delivering his post-Super Tuesday victory speech. Two were stopped before they could get on stage but two got within inches of Biden before being pushed away by his wife, Jill Biden, and senior adviser Symone Sanders with help from a campaign security guard and a handful of other campaign staffers.

Even before Tuesday’s incident, Biden’s public appearances had since his South Carolina win begun to feel less safe to his traveling aides, with renewed enthusiasm for his candidacy and increased media attention. The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Biden campaign declined to comment.

Biden was entitled to Secret Service protection for six months after he left office as vice president. Presidential and vice presidential candidates are eligible for Secret Service within 120 days of the general election. But some candidates get protection earlier in their campaigns, Barack Obama got a Secret Service detail in mid-2007, while Donald Trump received one about a year before the election.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Los Angeles at jepstein32@bloomberg.net;Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Magan Crane

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