Herman Cain, who's security team manhandled multiple reporters recently, became the first GOP candidate to receive Secret Service protection in this election cycle--and Cain's spokesman, J.D. Gordon said skirmishes with journalists prompted the decision, The Washington Post reported. "Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon said Thursday night that the campaign asked for the protection after The Washington Post posted an article online that morning detailing a series of physical skirmishes involving journalists at Cain rallies."
From The Post's take, Gordon's remark could mean "we needed protection from aggressive journalists" or "we needed protection for journalists because they were getting trampled," which Slate's David Weigel notes and clears up. He asked Gordon: "Was the campaign concerned about injured journalists; was that why the request was made?" Gordon said, "No. It wasn't the reason."
So, the decision was prompted by a Post article about skirmishes with journalists and Cain's spokesman said that injuring journalists wasn't the reason why the decision was made. It would seem then, that unless--as Weigel noted-- there's a "threat the campaign doesn't want to talk about," that it was concerned with reporters mobbing the candidate at events.
But the recent reports of Aaron Blake at The Washington Post saying that a bodyguard got physical with him before he planned to ask questions or Lindsey Boerma, a reporter for National Journal and CBS News, being clotheslined by an officer assigned to the candidate, doesn't suggest the campaign has a problem with keeping journalists at bay. Cain's campaign must think otherwise.
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Erik Hayden
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