Herman Cain’s campaign is backtracking on their claim that they brought the Secret Service in to protect the candidate from an unruly press. Now a spokesman says the move was in response to threats against the Republican presidential hopeful.
“It has nothing to do with the media, it has nothing to do with reporters,” Cain communications director JD Gordon told NBC News on Friday, saying the request was put in “a couple weeks ago” after a series of unspecified threats.
Earlier the same day, Gordon was quoted in The Washington Post seemingly suggesting that the campaign had asked for federal protection to deal with the media frenzy surrounding the candidate. From the Post:
Cain spokesman JD Gordon] would not say how many Secret Service agents would be positioned with Cain, but the spokesman said the coverage began Thursday night in New York, where Cain taped an interview on the “Late Show with David Letterman.”
On the campaign trail, Cain “draws anywhere from a dozen to 50 media at his events,” Gordon said. “When he gets out at a rally or a campaign stop, it has been increasingly common for media to be physically putting themselves and others in danger by trying to follow him with a lot of heavy equipment and cameras in close quarters like we saw yesterday.”