Ben Carson, Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton, will soon be the only 2016 presidential candidates with Secret Service protection. Clinton was already receiving such protection due to her status as a wife of a former President. The other two received it upon request. See this story.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
In Mrs. Clinton’s case, should it be wife or a former president? I never heard of Bill and Hillary being divorced.
I meant President.
Thank you. I have now moved “former” to modify “President”.
United Coalition
http://www.usparliament.org/pdc.php
Of note: in the early 1990s, Congress passed a law limiting the protection of ex-Presidents and their spouses to ten years, instead of life. However, the incumbent Clintons were grandfathered in for lifetime protection, and G.W. Bush would have been the first it applied to. Obama signed a law in 2013 returning to the old lifetime policy, so come January 2019 Dubya doesn’t have anything to worry about.
Interesting addition there Andy. The Establishment takes care of its own, while it disappears for hours candidates like Jill Stein who merely want to take part in the debates after having gotten ballot access in a majority of the country. What an amazing country we have…
The only third party candidates getting Secret Service were Wallace, Schmitz, McCarthy, Anderson, and Perot. However, I don’t know all the details, and could be wrong on some of them.
Wallace and Perot may have had their own security people, and I don’t know about Nader.
Pediatrician Benjamin Spock also received Secret Service protection as the People’s Party candidate for president in 1972.
When he ran in 1976, McCarthy had a line in his speech, “I like to thank the Secret Service for being here and increasing our audience today.”
For Mrs. Clinton, OK. Trump and Carson, come on. Why? At this point they are running for a nomination to the general election. Seems too soon. How much is this costing us?