GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley requested Secret Service protection due to increasing threats.

Haley didn’t disclose details about the threats she has received on the campaign trail.

“We’ve had multiple issues,” Haley said at a campaign event, according to Fox News.

“It’s not going to stop me from doing what I need to do,” she added.

Fox News reports:

Haley was asked at a news conference in Columbia, S.C. late last week about increased levels of security at her events.

“When you do something like this, you get threats,” she told reporters. “It’s just the reality.”

Haley mentioned 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 added.

Hours after Haley spoke to reporters, a heckler was removed from her campaign event in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Secret Service protection is typically provided to who the Department of Homeland Security identifies as major presidential and vice presidential candidates.

However, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been denied Secret Service protection multiple times.

“I sure hope they care about Nikki Haley’s safety more than mine. I’ve requested three times — still denied. Good luck Nikki!” RFK Jr. said.

Per CBS News:

Haley is escorted by personal security at South Carolina campaign events, and local law enforcement is also present. The heightened security was not the norm for her campaign stops in Iowa and New Hampshire leading up to those nomination contests.

Last week, Haley told reporters that threats are a reality of running for president and indicated her campaign was beefing up security.

“Part of running for public life is that you’re going to deal with the threats that are there,” she said when CBS News asked about her security situation. “That’s not going to deter me. Does it mean we have to put a few more bodies around this? Yes, that’s fine. But 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 it just as part of the game.”

Haley was recently targeted by a swatting attempt, where a crime is falsely reported to bring law enforcement to a specific location. She told NBC’s “Meet the Press” last month that she was not home, but her elderly parents were there with their caregiver.

 

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