by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News July 28, 2023
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the Biden administration has denied his request as a 2024 presidential candidate for Secret Service protection.
“Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection. But not me,” Kennedy, who is running for the Democrat Party’s presidential nomination against Joe Biden, tweeted on Friday.
“Typical turnaround time for pro forma protection requests from presidential candidates is 14-days,” Kennedy said. “After 88-days of no response and after several follow-ups by our campaign, the Biden Administration just denied our request.”
Kennedy said that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told his campaign that Kennedy didn’t qualify for the protection.
Conservative commentator Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, said Kennedy is “not wrong.”
“I’ve worked with CNOS (Candidate Nominee Operations Section) protective details for candidates with a FAR smaller campaign footprint than RFK. No way he should be denied USSS protection. This appears to be a political decision by DHS, rather than a security-focused one.”
According to its website, federal law authorizes the Secret Service to “provide protection for major presidential and vice presidential candidates.”
Some of the factors that determine what qualifies as a “major candidate” include whether they are actively campaigning, have had a threat assessment conducted by the agency and have filed the required paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.
According to a Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey, carried out for Newsweek, 14 percent of 2020 Biden voters “strongly support” Kennedy “running in the Democratic 2024 presidential primary election,” with another 17 percent saying they “support” the decision. By contrast, 14 percent are “strongly opposed,” with a further 6 percent “opposed” and 33 percent saying they neither “support nor oppose” his run.
The survey also found 75 percent of those who backed Biden in 2020 want him to take part in Democrat primary debates.
Speaking to Newsweek, a Kennedy campaign spokesperson said: “The polls you mention show the hunger in the electorate for genuine democracy, where incumbents face vigorous challenges from candidates with substantially different views. Of course, they want debates.”
Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection. But not me.
Typical turnaround time for pro forma protection requests from presidential candidates is 14-days. After 88-days of no response and after several…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 28, 2023
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