Biden finally grants Secret Service protection to RFK Jr after Trump assassination attempt, months of resistance
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President Biden has dropped months of resistance and agreed to grant Secret Service protection to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the move at the regular White House press briefing Monday after Trump was grazed with a bullet at a Saturday rally.
“In light of this weekend’s events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr,” Mayorkas said.
Hours earlier, former President Donald Trump demanded that Kennedy receive Secret Service protection, calling it the “right thing to do.”
“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,” the 78-year-old former president wrote on Truth Social.
“Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!” he added.
Trump’s demand came two days after he was left bloodied by a sniper’s bullet that struck his ear during a rally in Butler, Pa.
The gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, killed one rally-goer and left two others critically wounded before he was shot and killed by authorities.
Kennedy Jr, whose father and uncle were assassinated in the 1960s, has made repeated requests for Secret Service protection since launching his bid for the White House – first as a Democrat and later as an independent – but he has been denied by the Biden administration.
A “protective intelligence assessment” conducted by the Secret Service and obtained by Judicial Watch, a government watchdog group, last September showed that the agency determined Kennedy Jr., was at an elevated “risk for adverse attention” but still denied him a protective security detail.
The Secret Service is authorized to protect major presidential and vice presidential candidates, identified as such by the secretary of Homeland Security, within 120 days of a presidential election.
Calls have grown for Kennedy Jr., to receive Secret Service protection in the aftermath of Saturday’s Trump rally shooting.
Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY) announced Sunday that they plan to introduce bipartisan legislation that would provide “enhanced Secret Service protection” to Kennedy Jr., Trump and President Biden.
“Anything less would be a disservice to our democracy,” they said in a statement.
Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has also urged Biden to grant Kennedy Jr.’s request for protection.
“I encourage [Biden] to immediately provide secret service protection for [Kennedy Jr.]” Polis wrote on X Saturday.
The independent candidate’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963, and his father, then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, was fatally shot in 1968.
