After the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, he called for the Biden administration to provide Secret Service protection to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Just hours later, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that the Biden administration would indeed offer this protection.
The presumptive GOP nominee posted on Truth Social, “In light of what is going on in the world today, I believe it is imperative that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. receive Secret Service protection – immediately.”
“Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!” Trump added. RFK Jr. had been repeatedly denied Secret Service protection by the Biden administration.
A few hours later, Mayorkas announced, “The President has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr.”
In an email recently obtained by Newsweek, former House member and cousin to RFK Jr., Patrick Kennedy, expressed his confusion over the administration’s persistent refusal to grant Secret Service protection to a presidential candidate deemed by the Secret Service to be at elevated risk. “As a family member of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as a former member of Congress, and as a member of the public, I struggle to understand the administration’s persistent refusal to grant Secret Service protection to a presidential candidate deemed by the Secret Service itself to be at elevated risk,” he wrote to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Newsweek reported that RFK Jr. had been threatened or been the subject of bizarre rants in 34 instances. In the days leading up to the attempted assassination on Trump, RFK Jr. had repeatedly called for the administration to provide him with Secret Service protection, citing a DHS rule that allows candidates security “as identified by the DHS Secretary, within 120 days of the general Presidential election.”
“Every time my application for Secret Service protection has been denied, apologists for the DHS said it was because protection isn’t guaranteed until 120 days before the election,” he said on July 8.
“That actually isn’t true – many candidates got it a year or more in advance. Anyway, the election is now 120 days away. Still no Secret Service. What is their excuse now?”