President Joe Biden has directed the Secret Service to provide a security detail to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The announcement from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas came amidst growing bipartisan calls to extend protections to Kennedy following Saturday's failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“Maintaining the safety and security of the president, the former president, and their campaign events, is one of our most vital priorities,” Mayorkas said. “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.”
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Kennedy thanked Biden for his decision on social media.
“Thank you to President Biden for granting me Secret Service protection,” he wrote in a post on X. “And I am so grateful to Gavin deBecker & Associates for keeping me safe for the last 15 months of my Presidential campaign.”
Kennedy had repeatedly tried to secure protection from the federal security agency while making his outsider bid for the presidency, repeatedly mentioning his family’s own tragic history with political violence.
His father, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated while running for president in 1968 and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was killed in 1963. He has invoked that gruesome family history in his pleas, including on the 56th anniversary of his father's assassination last month.
Mayorkas denied Kennedy’s past requests based on recommendations from a cohort of congressional leaders, according to The New York Times.
Typically, independent or third party candidates are considered for Secret Service protection if he or she reaches a national polling threshold of at least 20 percent for 30 consecutive days, the newspaper reported.
But the shooting at Saturday's Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which left Trump’s right ear injured, one man dead, and two others injured, spurred a new wave of support for granting Kennedy a Secret Service detail, including from Democrats and Republicans alike, Politico reported.
Trump, who formally received the Republican nomination for president on Monday afternoon, wrote on Truth Social earlier in the day he believed it was “imperative” Kennedy be granted protection, citing, in part, “the history of the Kennedy family.”
“This is the obvious right thing to do!” Trump wrote.
Kennedy was spotted campaigning Monday in Wisconsin, where the Republican National Convention is also being held in Milwaukee this week.
The environmental lawyer reportedly met with Trump there on Monday morning and discussed “national unity” with the former president, Kennedy wrote on X.
The meeting quickly sparked gossip about the future of Kennedy's bid, however, as Politico reported Trump met with Kennedy to discuss the possibility of receiving his endorsement.
“Lots of rumors going around about my meeting this morning with President Trump,” Kennedy wrote. “Our main topic was national unity, and I hope to meet with Democratic leaders about that as well. No, I am not dropping out of the race.”
