Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is getting the cold shoulder from his fellow Democrats when it comes to his own safety as he’s been denied secret service protection by the Biden administration despite having requested it months ago.
According to a tweet by RFK Jr., he’d put in the request for USSS protection 88 days ago with no response from the Bidens. As he notes, the typical answer to this request comes in just a couple weeks, but after a massively delayed response, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he determined Kennedy doesn’t need the protection.
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 follow-ups by our campaign, the Biden Administration just denied our request. Secretary Mayorkas: “I have determined that Secret Service protection for Robert F Kennedy Jr is not warranted at this time.” Our campaign’s request included a 67-page report from the world’s leading protection firm, detailing unique and well established security and safety risks aside from commonplace death threats.
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
According to ABC, in order to qualify for protection, a candidate must meet a few criteria:
- They are a publicly declared candidates.
- They are actively campaigning nationally and are contesting at least 10 state primaries.
- Are pursuing the nomination of a qualified party, one whose presidential candidate received at least 10% of the popular vote in the prior election.
- Are qualified for public matching funds of at least $100,000, and have raised at least $10 million in additional contributions.
- Have received by April 1 of the election year an average of 5 percent in individual candidate preferences in the most recent national opinion polls by ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN, or have received at least 10 percent of the votes cast for all candidates in two same-day or consecutive primaries or caucuses.
Despite Kennedy checking some of these boxes, we’re too far out for some of these criteria to matter, that is true, but there are exceptions that can be made.
According to Raw Story, Kennedy — whom they first described as a conspiracy theorist for good measure — doesn’t deserve to have USSS protection because he doesn’t meet the requirements, calling his request “historically illiterate.” Hilariously, they derail their own argument:
“Presidential candidates generally don’t get USSS protection until year of election, and only if likely nominee,” writes the Washington Post’s Michael Scherer. “Obama was the exception in May of 2007. DHS and a panel of congressional leaders decide.”
They made an exception for Barack Obama for the 2008 election because he had been receiving threats, which as Kennedy points out, he too had been receiving valid and worrisome threats…pages and pages of them.
The DNC has made it clear that Biden will be the nominee, even waving away debates to enforce the fact, and this should be a point of contention for any Democrat voter. It’s another statement from the DNC that voters don’t have a choice. You’ll take your Biden and like it. Kennedy is apparently not worth sending USSS protection to because he doesn’t matter in the end. He’ll never be the candidate.
“Private citizen” Hunter Biden, however, gets a taxpayer-funded six-car motorcade filled with USSS protection to his court appearance.
So Hunter Biden can roll around with an entire battalion of agents but a popular Democrat candidate can’t get a little squad? There’s nothing about this situation that looks good on the Bidens but what looks good on the Bidens matters very little when you have every alphabet network and government agency working 24/7 to prop you up and make you look good and protect you.
