Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by Gage Skidmore / Flickr (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // The Biden White House announced that independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will receive Secret Service protection, hours after former President Donald Trump demanded the administration grant Kennedy’s repeated request.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced from the White House on Monday that Biden had directed him “to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy, Jr.” in “light of this weekend’s events.”
Mayorkas was referring to the failed assassination attempt on Trump Saturday in which a bullet from the gun of a 20-year-old shooter came within an inch of ending the life of the former president and presumptive Republican nominee.
Earlier on Monday, Trump took to TRUTH Social to demand that the White House grant Kennedy Secret Service protection.
“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,” Trump had written on the platform. “Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!”
Both the independent candidate’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Sr., were assassinated.
On June 5, 1968, then-24-year-old Sirhan Sirhan shot and killed the elder RFK at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the evening of the California Democratic Primary, which Kennedy won.
Kennedy was at the time widely seen as the frontrunner to secure the 1968 Democratic nomination.
On Monday afternoon, the younger Kennedy expressed gratitude for Trump’s intervention. “It is a hopeful sign for our country when a political opponent calls for one’s protection,” Kennedy wrote. “Maybe our country can unite after all.”
KOLD, a CBS affiliate, reported that the Secret Service “is legally required to protect major party presidential and vice presidential candidates and their families 120 days out from a general election, but third-party candidates are on an as-needed basis.”
Trump and Kennedy met on Monday morning.
Kennedy wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that the main topic discussed “was national unity.”
“I hope to meet with Democratic leaders about that as well,” the independent continued.
“No, I am not dropping out of the race,” he added.
