Former Republican presidential front-runner Ben Carson can retain his Secret Service protection through the Republican National Convention, unless he asks for the detail to be dropped, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Carson requested the protection last fall and was provided the detail in November, when he was leading the Republican field in some early states. But Carson’s Secret Service agents couldn’t protect him from the rhetorical attacks that Donald Trump unleashed almost immediately, which contributed to a quick drop in the polls and an expected decision to exit the race on Friday.
“They can drop protection in two ways: basically, just voluntarily on their own, tell us they don’t want it anymore, or they are no longer the official party’s candidate — so, after the convention,” a DHS spokesperson told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
Carson acknowledged in a Wednesday statement he can’t “see a political path forward in light of last evening’s Super Tuesday primary results,” but he didn’t explicitly say he’ll drop out of the race. “However, this grassroots movement on behalf of ‘We the People’ will continue,” he said.
One of Carson’s closest friends told the Examiner that he’ll suspend his campaign during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. When asked if Carson would be allowed to keep his security detail in light of Wednesday’s statement, the DHS spokesperson replied “yep,” citing the necessity that he must ask to drop it.
In recent weeks, with Carson’s political star in decline, DHS officials have been researching whether there is any legal precedent for revoking Secret Service protection, but found none.
“There’s no concrete answer to the question of how do you determine the end of the road,” a Secret Service official told the Examiner on Friday. “It’s more than likely we would stay with Dr. Carson up until the point that he decides he doesn’t want to be a candidate anymore.”
