The Trail

McCain Will Request Protection

John McCain has decided to request Secret Service protection and will meet with officials from the agency in the next several days, a senior aide said.

The move came after the head of the Secret Service openly discussed McCain's lack of protection at a congressional hearing on Thursday.

"Statutorily, he is not required to take protection," The Washington Post quoted Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan as saying when he was asked about McCain's security during a hearing on the agency's budget. "As far as an actual request, we have not gotten one."

Aides said no meeting had been scheduled. But they said the senator from Arizona intended to accept protection for the remaining months of his campaign for the presidency.

Until now, McCain had said he did not want the security apparatus that came with Secret Service protection. In November, campaigning in New Hampshire, he derided it as unnecessary and intrusive.

"It's the inconvenience. It's the inconvenience it causes people," he said at the time. "It's a waste of the taxpayers' money. It's just everything I don't like."

-- Michael D. Shear