Republican senators urge Trump to restore security details over Iran threat

Two prominent Republican senators close to Donald Trump urged the President to rethink his decision last week to pull the security details of several former officials over what they called ongoing threats from Iran.

The advice from the close Trump allies who are also prominent Iran hawks is some of the first pushback yet on the administration by senior members of his party.

Trump ended the Secret Service protection for former national security advisor John Bolton, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and former special envoy for Iran Brian Hook last week.

All had previously run afoul of Trump politically.

The security details had been in place during the administration of Joe Biden since intelligence and law enforcement officials assessed Iran sought to kill them for their role in Trump's decision to assassinate Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

"I would encourage the president to revisit the decision for those people who are being targeted by Iran," chair of the US Senate intelligence committee and longtime Trump backer Tom Cotton told Fox News Sunday.

"I've reviewed the intelligence in the last few days. The threat to anyone involved in President Donald Trump's strike on Soleimani is persistent. It's real. Iran is committed to vengeance against all of these people," Cotton said.

Another longtime backer of the president Lindsey Graham said pulling the security of key officials who implement American policy was not the right move.

"Whether you like John Bolton or not, that's not the question for me ... We need to make sure that if you serve in our government and you take on a foreign power at the request of the administration that we do not leave you hanging," Graham told CNN.

Bolton told the network last week that the threat to his life from Iran persisted but Trump told reporters the men could afford security details with their own money.