Should Bernie Sanders have Secret Service protection?

[Playinghardball]

About a month ago, just after protesters from the Black Lives Matter movement shut down a Bernie Sanders rally, a citizens petition appeared on the White House’s “We the People” site, warning that the candidate was vulnerable to “potentially violent confrontations with disturbed people.”

Calling him a “leading Democratic presidential candidate,” the Aug. 12 request compared Sanders to candidate Barack Obama, who was granted early special protection from the Secret Service in 2007 because of increasing threats to his safety.

Sanders’s supporters also referenced (though not by name) his Democratic contender, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has Secret Service detail because she was a former first lady.

“This situation must not be allowed to continue a moment longer,” the petition, signed by just under 10,000 people, (or around the size of a Sanders’ rally give or take), says. “Bernie Sanders must have immediate Secret Service protection, just as the other leading candidate does.”

(Quick aside: Protesters harassing candidates at campaign events is fairly common, and rarely, if ever, leads to violence. It’s unknown whether there have been any threats made to Sanders or his campaign.)

How White House hopefuls receive taxpayer-funded security is completely subjective. An advisory committee that includes the speaker of the House, House minority whip, Senate majority leader, Senate minority leader and one additional member chosen by the committee decides which presidential candidates should have Secret Service detail and passes the recommendations on to the Homeland Security Department.

It wasn’t until 1968, after Robert Kennedy was assassinated, that protection was expanded to cover “major candidates,” a distinction that has no real definition. Though, according to a 2000 Congressional Research Service report, there are certain guidelines the committee follows like the candidate must be declared (good start), has raised at least $2 million (who hasn’t these days?) and gets at least 5 percent support in national polls (well, that eliminates half of the GOP field).

In 2012, Secret Service agents were detailed to Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and later Newt Gingrich, during the GOP primary. This year, so far, just Clinton has the government-funded protection. Donald Trump pays for his own private body men. So does Jeb Bush.

Dan Emmett, a former Secret Service agent and author of “Within Arm’s Length: A Secret Service Agent’s Definitive Inside Account of Protecting the President,” is opposed to any candidates getting protection.

More here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/09/10/should-bernie-sanders-have-secret-service-protection/
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You can't tell what the billionaires might have in mind....

[AuntPatsy]

1. Yes

[yeoman6987]

4. No. He is not the nominee yet.

Hillary has it from a former position so she has met the requirements. Unless we want to have all 17 GOP candidates have protection to then no. You know once rules change for one, they change for all.

[AuntPatsy]

6. True but I still wish he could get it, I fear his safety considering whom he is up against

[yeoman6987]

7. Personally I do to. It's just a shame that Repugs can't be mature

And look at his situation without showing their jealousy and being a 4 year old saying he got more candy then I did type of scenario.

[jeff47]

2. I'm loathe to put people into a security bubble.

Unless he starts getting credible threats, I don't think it would be good.

[appalachiablue]

3. Yes, absolutely! There have been OPs about it in the last couple months, to ask the WH.

[WillyT]

5. K & R !!!

[baran]

8. Undecided

I get nervous when I see him surrounded by large crowds; however, I think he likes to be accessible and to meet and talk to people face to face. I'd hate to see him insulated inside a security bubble. If he wants secret service protection, though, I think he should be able to request and receive it. But I think that would be a decision for him (and Jane) to make.