Biden adm. refused request from RFK Jr. for Secret Service protection

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
28 Jul 2023 21:34

Some observers say that Kennedy's request is fundamentally unwarranted because this level of protection is not granted to candidates who don't make it past the nomination of a major party.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at an event where he announced his run for president on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, in Boston. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, File)

US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Twitter on Friday that he was denied a request by the Biden administration to be provided with Secret Service protection in the 2024 presidential race.

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

Citing Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Kennedy said that the White House responded to his request by saying that "Secret Service protection for Robert F Kennedy Jr is not warranted at this time."

Some observers say that Kennedy's request is fundamentally unwarranted because this level of protection is not granted to candidates who don't make it past the nomination of a major party.

Other journalists argued that there have been some exceptions to this rule as was the case for former US President Barack Obama who obtained such protection in 2007.

At the time, the Department of Homeland Security and a panel of congressional leaders decided to grant Obama the service.

On May 8, Kennedy said in an interview that the CIA was responsible for his uncle's assassination in 1963.

"There is overwhelming evidence that the CIA was involved in [John F Kennedy's] murder. I think it’s beyond a reasonable doubt at this point," the candidate said on WABC 770 AM's Cats Roundtable show with John Catsimatidis while referring to James Douglas' book "JFK and the Unspeakable."

Kennedy Jr. said that the CIA was not only involved in the late 35th US President's assassination but also in "the cover-up" of the crime.

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, sparking a frenzy of public inquiry. Several investigations concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots, and he was apprehended shortly after the murder. Two days later, he was shot while being escorted to a car that was supposed to take him to the county jail by Jack Ruby, the owner of a Dallas club. In the decades since the events, a plethora of conspiracy theories have emerged in an attempt to explain the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.

The CIA says on its website that conspiracies linking the agency to JFK's assassination are a "lie."

Robert Kennedy Jr's father, Senator Robert Kennedy, was also gunned down in 1968, after which a Palestinian man was accused and wrongfully convicted of his murder.