RFK Jr. Still Campaigns for President Without Secret Service Protection

Robert F. Kennedy has, on six occasions, filed a request for Secret Service protection, which the Biden Administration (Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas) has continued to deny.

Under Title 18 U.S.C. 3056(a)(7), all major presidential and/or vice presidential candidates are eligible for Secret Service protection.

By all accounts, Kennedy should qualify. As he explains, after his father’s assassination, Congress passed a law that major candidates are entitled to Secret Service protection for at least 120 days before the general election. The threshold you have to meet to be considered a “major” candidate has a poll rating of 15% for one month.

Kennedy has far surpassed that threshold. The president also has the discretion to grant Secret Service protection to anyone at any time, not just presidential candidates.

John Bolton, for example, a former national security adviser who retired in 2006, has Secret Service protection to this day, as do many other former government officials. The president can also extend the length of time that a candidate can be under Secret Service protection before the general election.

“My uncle was given Secret Service protection for almost 500 days prior to the election, even when he was not even a candidate,” Kennedy says, “and he was given that protection by President Carter, with whom he had a very adversarial relationship.

He ended up running against President Carter and they didn’t like each other, but President Carter was a classy person and did what he should have done, which is to provide Teddy with protection.

Barack Obama, I think got it 500 days early. Shirley Chisholm and Jesse Jackson got it early. John McCain was offered it early. I think there’s probably about 20 or 30 candidates who’ve been offered it early in recent history. And as far as we’ve been able to tell, there has never been a candidate who applied for Secret Service protection to whom it was denied.

I’m the first. It was an historical event and it was clearly a political choice. It was not based upon a threat assessment. It was clearly based upon a political calculation. And I think that’s disturbing …

I have stalkers that I deal with on an everyday basis, literally every single day, and I get death threats quite often. I had a death threat two weeks ago that appears to have been calculated to try to shut down one of my rallies in Charleston, South Carolina … About three weeks ago, a month maybe now, I had a mentally ill person come into my home, [and made it] to the third floor.”

Of course, knowing the history of what happened with Kennedy’s father and uncle, one wonders whether he could really trust the Secret Service with his life anyway. He’s currently protected by a private security firm, Gavin de Becker and Associates, which is one of the leading security firms in the country.

You can't have a functioning democracy when candidates aren't safe. Whether or not you support my campaign, please sign this petition urging the White House to grant me Secret Service protection.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 5, 2024

“You might have heard that yet another intruder broke into my house this week, and returned to my house again shortly after the police released him,” Kennedy said on the video in May 2024.

Also, in April, “an armed gunman using falsified U.S. Marshal badges and phony federal ID, and carrying an arsenal in his backpack, tried to approach me at a speech in Los Angeles, a short distance from where my dad was assassinated,” RFK. Jr. revealed.

Joe Biden & Alejandro Mayorkas continue to refuse Secret Service protection for RFK, Jr.

“However, President Biden has made the historic decision to deny me a Secret Service detail. I’m the only one whose request in history has ever been denied,” he continued. “I don’t spend time worrying about my personal safety, but I do worry about the safety of my family, and their sense of well-being. And about the safety of bystanders if there happens to be a more serious incident.”

He added, “In its threat assessment, the Secret Service concluded that I am at an elevated risk,” and accused Biden of making a “naked political calculation” to keep him unprotected.

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