Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ask the president again Joe Biden to give him Secret Service protection after an armed gunman was arrested at his campaign event over the weekend, just three miles from where his father was killed in 1968.
“The threat level to our candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is rising every day. He is not the only one at risk: Everyone who attends a campaign event is at risk,” he wrote to the president Kennedy’s campaign manager, Dennis Kucinich.
Kucinich, in his missive, he was referring to the armed gunman arrested over the weekend and the history of the assassination of political figures. Kennedy’s father, Robert Kennedy, was shot Los Angeles in 1968 and his uncle John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas in 1963.
Kennedy challenges Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination. Biden leads over the top 50 points in surveys. But polls also show voters are concerned that, at age 80, Biden might be getting too old for the job.
Robert F. Kennedy has again requested Secret Service protection; was speaking at a Hispanic Heritage Month event at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles on Friday night when a gunman tried to enter.
Kucinich, in his letter, noted that the country still bears the scars of the political turmoil of the 1960s.
“It is not difficult to imagine the civil chaos and political disintegration that could result from a return of the kind of assassinations of public officials and presidential candidates that marred the 1960s,” Kucinich wrote.
“The American psyche still bears the scars of those devastating events. Along with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., sent America into a tailspin that many believe the country has not yet recovered from,” he said.
Kucinich also noted that President Biden and his family know the importance of having federal protection.
“This ever-present threat of violence is something you are well aware of given the security requirements for you and your family members,” he noted.
The Secret Service Notes “does not determine who qualifies for protection, nor does the Secret Service have the power to independently initiate protection of candidates.”
The agency protects the leading candidates for president and vice president, usually within 120 days of the election. Ironically, these measures were put in place after the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968.
“Prior to this event, candidates and their families did not receive Secret Service protection,” the agency noted.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden with their Secret Service details
Police saw the suspect being arrested after claiming to be with Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s security team
The incident took place less than two miles from where RFJ’s father was shot on June 5, 1968. Kennedy Sr. he died a day later at Good Samaritan Hospital.
Dennis Kucinich (left), the former Ohio congressman who now works for Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s campaign manager, wrote to Biden asking for protection for his candidate.
A president can order Secret Service protection for anyone he chooses. Former President Donald Trump, in his final days in office, extended Secret Service protection after the presidency to his four adult children and two of their spouses.
Only former presidents and their spouses receive Secret Service protection for life. Any minor child would get protection until age 16, although most presidents extend protection for their minor children until they finish college. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush did this for their daughters.
Some presidential candidates receive protection early in the primary process, especially if they are subject to multiple threats.
Barack Obama was one of them. He was approved for protection in May 2007, marking the first time in history that a presidential candidate received Secret Service protection nearly two years before a presidential election.
Her rival in the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton, already had Secret Service protection due to her status as a former first lady.
Obama, the first major black presidential candidate, had received numerous death threats.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson, also a leading black candidate for the presidency, received early Secret Service protection during his 1984 and 1988 White House campaigns because of the threats.
It’s not just the president who can approve a candidate getting a Secret Service detail.
The Secretary of Homeland Security, the federal department that houses the Secret Service, can also approve federal protection with the permission of an advisory committee that includes the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Whip, the leader of the the Senate majority, the Senate minority leader, and one additional member chosen by the committee.
Some presidential candidates refuse a protective detail, which can hamper a candidate’s movements.
In the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain, who was the Republican candidate, resisted having federal protection until the last possible moment, calling it an “inconvenience” and a “waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Eight months before the election, he bowed to the “inevitable” as he put it and accepted the detail.
A full Secret Service detail usually involves a long motorcade: a lead car, a car with the candidate, a decoy car, cars with additional agents and protection, and an ambulance. Dozens of agents secure the candidate and provide security at the events, putting crowd members through scanners and monitoring for threats.
Other presidential candidates hire private security through their campaign committees.
Others have security details because of their current roles. Gov. Ron DeSantis, for example, has a protective detail through his job as governor of Florida, but these are state police, not federal agents.
Currently, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, along with their spouses, have a full-time Secret Service detail. Biden’s two older children and seven grandchildren, as well as Harris’ two stepchildren, also have protection.
Kennedy had a scare Friday night while speaking at a Hispanic Heritage Month event at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeleswhen a gunman tried to get to him.
Wearing a US Marshal badge on a lanyard, a man tried to identify himself as a member of Kennedy’s security team.
He was seen wearing two shoulder holsters with pistols loaded with spare ammunition.
The incident took place less than two miles from the former site of the Ambassador Hotel, 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, where RFK was shot and killed in June 1968 after winning the Democratic nomination. California presidential primaries.
Barack Obama at the Iowa State Fair in August 2007 during the 2008 presidential campaign; a Secret Service agent is visible behind him; Obama got early protection because of the threats
RFK Jr’s uncle was assassinated in 1963: Above President John F Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie Connally ride together in a convertible limousine in Dallas in 1963 shortly before that the shots were fired.
The property was later redeveloped as the Robert F. Kennedy Schools after the hotel was demolished in 2005.
Kennedy shared to X, formerly known as Twitterhis gratitude for the quick thinking actions of those around him who were able to intercept the suspect.
“I am very grateful that the quick-acting and alert bodyguards of Gavin de Becker and Associates (GDBA) saw and apprehended an armed man who attempted to approach me during my speech on Hispanic heritage at the Wilshire Ebell Theater of Los Angeles tonight,” Kennedy wrote.
“The man, who was wearing two shoulder holsters with loaded handguns and spare rounds of ammunition, was wearing a US Marshal badge on a lanyard and a belt clip federal ID. He was identified as member of my security detail.
“Armed members of the GDBA team moved quickly to isolate and detain the man until LAPD arrived to make the arrest. I am also grateful to the LAPD for their quick response.
RFK Jr. he added that he hoped he would receive Secret Service protection after the incident.
“I’m the first presidential candidate in history to go white house has refused a request for protection.’
RFK, a shot for the 2024 Democratic nomination as he trails Biden 76 percent to 9 percent in the poll, lamented last month after the Biden administration denied his request to secret service protection.
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