Facing mounting threats, Nikki Haley asks for Secret Service protection

Nikki Haley, who has been the target of at least two hoax calls that sent authorities rushing to her home, has filed for Secret Service protection as threats against her have increased, a campaign spokeswoman confirmed Monday.

After losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald J. Trump, is now his only rival left in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. The two have clashed fiercely on the campaign trail and face a heated primary in her home state on February 24.

Trump's supporters are known to attack his political opponents with racist messages, death threats and “swatting” calls, or false reports of emergencies in their homes. But Ms. Haley's campaign officials will no longer release information about the number and types of threats she has received. Ms. Haley could also be a target because of her work in Iran as a United Nations ambassador.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, who first reported the move, Ms. Haley said only that her team had seen “several issues.” “It's not going to stop me from doing what I need to do,” she said.

Presidential candidates typically receive Secret Service protection around the time they win their party's nomination. In 2007, Barack Obama, then a senator, was granted protection nine months before primary voting began.

Ms. Haley has increased security at her events in recent weeks. In South Carolina, reports filed with the Charleston County Sheriff's Office show that emergency services responded at least two false reports since December at her home on Kiawah Island.

On the first occasion, on Dec. 30 around 2:40 p.m., a caller told authorities that he had shot and killed his girlfriend at the home, that there were children at the location and that he was threatening to harm himself, according to the incident. report. Officers said they showed their weapons when they arrived on the scene and told the three people inside to raise their hands. They soon discovered that the call was a hoax and that the people inside were Mrs. Haley's parents and a caregiver.

In the second episode, on January 1 around 1 p.m., a caller claimed she had shot her daughter in the house and that she was “lying in a pool of blood,” but authorities recognized the address and waited to send multiple units. , according to the report.

Ms Haley called the experiences 'traumatic' the popular radio program 'The Breakfast Club', in conversation with the hosts, Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy. She was not home at the time, she said, adding that authorities burst into the house after seeing her mother, Raj Randhawa, and her father, Ajit Randhawa, through a window.

“We take care of my parents. They are 87 and 90,” she said. “And if 25 people show up with guns drawn, what happened to our country, come on. I mean, we can't keep living like this. It is not normal. It's not healthy.”

The details took weeks to emerge and were part of a series of high-profile “swatting” attempts against politicians and government buildings in late December and early January. State capitals in Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi And Montana have been evacuated or confined after receiving bomb threats that authorities later described as false and unspecific. Other prominent Republicans have also been crushed, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a right-wing provocateur and Trump ally from Georgia.

The events have contributed to a heightened climate of intimidation and violence since Mr. Trump and his allies first stoked lies and conspiracy theories that the 2020 election had been stolen. In October 2022, Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was seriously injured when an intruder entered their home and attacked him with a hammer.