Once again, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has encountered a security threat, and yet again, the Biden administration is refusing to provide the presidential candidate with Secret Service protection, despite multiple requests from Kennedy and his team over several months. In an exclusive interview with The American Spectator, Kennedy told us about the latest threat and informed us that he has responded by filing a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service.
Obviously, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy was a terrible tragedy for this nation, as was the killing of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, five years earlier.
The latest incident occurred this past Wednesday when an intruder was arrested after climbing a fence at the Los Angeles home of Kennedy. Kennedy was home at the time, and the man made it to the second floor of the residence. (READ MORE from Paul Kengor: The Democrat Party Hates America: The Book Every American Needs)
The “Kennedy for President 2024” campaign described this man in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as “another delusional intruder.” According to the Kennedy team, the Secret Service had been repeatedly informed about this “mentally ill” individual in recent months. The individual has sent hundreds of emails to RFK Jr. and believes that he is being followed by people who intend to kill him. According to the Kennedy team, the man’s “obsession with RFK Jr. leads him to be at times hostile and angry.”
That being the case, the Kennedy team has continued to plead with the Biden administration for Secret Service protection, to no avail.
On Wednesday, the task was again left to a private security firm, Gavin de Becker & Associates (GDBA), which detected and detained the intruder when he made his way inside Kennedy’s home. He was apprehended and turned over to the LAPD. Shortly thereafter, according to the Kennedy team, the man was released from police custody and immediately returned to Kennedy’s residence, where he was arrested again. RFK Jr. was home at the time of both arrests.
GDBA likewise had notified the Secret Service about this specific individual several times in recent months. The private firm also shared what the Kennedy campaign called “alarming communications he [the intruder] has sent to the candidate.”
No doubt rattled by this, RFK Jr. says he is particularly concerned about the safety of his loved ones and those around him. “I don’t spend time worrying about my personal safety,” Kennedy told The American Spectator. “I do worry about the safety of my family and their sense of wellbeing — and about the safety of bystanders if there is a more serious incident.”
In a five-page October 25 letter to Secretary Mayorkas, the Kennedy for President 2024 campaign noted that this intruder is the third person to make “dangerous approaches to the candidate, and all known to Secret Service.” All three remain “at large and able to continue their efforts to encounter the candidate.” RFK Jr. and his private security firm are emphasizing that not only is he threatened, but (in the words of Gavin de Becker), “Members of the public and others in the vicinity of the candidate are also at increased risk of being injured or killed in the absence of Secret Service protection.”
The five-page October 25 letter to Mayorkas, shared with The American Spectator, is the third formal request made directly to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security seeking Secret Service protection, in addition to numerous other requests, including written requests by Kennedy campaign official Dennis Kucinich to both Mayorkas and directly to President Biden, as well as to various congressional leaders. The Kennedy campaign’s plea to DHS includes a 67-page report by Gavin de Becker making an exhaustive case for the need for Secret Service protection.
The five-page letter to Mayorkas also includes details and photos regarding the threat to Kennedy last month in Los Angeles, where a man showed up at a side door of a Kennedy campaign event, identified himself as a U.S. Marshal, and immediately demanded that he be taken to see RFK Jr. He was carrying a loaded handgun. The LAPD officers who arrested the individual found that he was carrying a second gun (with laser sight) in his backpack. The man was in possession of multiple clips filled with ammunition.
Despite that incident, the Biden administration continued to refuse to provide protection to Kennedy. In an October 26 press release, Team Kennedy stated: “Over several months, the campaign submitted formal requests for Secret Service protection, yet U.S. Department of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas has refused to approve the protection. Every presidential administration for 55 years has afforded early protection to candidates who requested it. The Biden administration is the sole outlier.”
It is indeed, and the refusal has persisted since this story began unfolding last summer.
“Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection. But not me,” RFK Jr. wrote in a tweet in July.
Then came the incident in September, when the armed man accused of impersonating a federal marshal managed to get into an RFK Jr. rally in Los Angeles. Incidentally, that’s the city where RFK Jr.’s father was assassinated in June 1968.
In response, campaign manager Dennis Kucinich wrote an open letter to President Biden that was circulated to the press: “Although it is a well-known historical fact, apparently, in your case, it bears repeating: Mr. Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. Mr. Kennedy’s father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated while a presidential candidate.”
Some liberal media sources have tried to cover for the Biden administration. CNN.com published a “fact check” attempting to toss cold water on RFK Jr.’s claims. Some Biden media protectors have asserted that Secret Service protection isn’t granted to candidates until 120 days prior to the election. That claim is bunkum. The Kennedy team in its five-page letter to Mayorkas lists two full pages of case after case of Secret Service protection offered to candidates long before Election Day. The letter notes the Carter administration providing Secret Service protection to Republican candidates Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Phil Crane, Howard Baker, and John Connally (who was shot in the same car in which JFK was assassinated in November 1963), and even to the potential third-party Democrat challenger, Ted Kennedy (RFK Jr.’s uncle), 441 days before the 1980 election, even though Kennedy had not formally declared his candidacy. The Team Kennedy letter lists numerous examples through every subsequent administration, Democrat and Republican — Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump. In March 2020, the Trump administration authorized Secret Service protection for Joe Biden 231 days before the election.
Clearly, Kennedy wants to get to the bottom of why, precisely, he is being denied, even as threats against him accumulate.
“Every administration for 55-years afforded early Secret Service protection to candidates who requested protection,” states the Team Kennedy letter to Secretary Mayorkas. “Your refusal is the sole outlier, making the Biden Administration the only one to refuse a protection request.” (emphasis original)
If it seems to you like the Biden administration’s inaction is politically motivated, well, you’re not alone. Kennedy and his team are certainly suspicious.
“It’s not right for the President to provide protection to his family and political favorites while denying it to political rivals,” RFK Jr. told The American Spectator in an email. “During his first week as Attorney General, my father assembled all the DOJ’s senior prosecutors to tell them that he would not tolerate any politicization of law-enforcement. President Biden displays a bust of my father in the oval office, but he seems to have forgotten this critical tenet of America democracy. During his administration, we’ve seen the wholesale cooption of federal law-enforcement agencies to censor criticism of White House policies and to serve other political ambitions.”
RFK Jr. got so fed up that last month the lifelong Democrat — from a family of Democrat royalty, no less — went rogue and decided to go third party. And you can be sure that that third-party declaration terrifies the Biden administration. (READ MORE from Paul Kengor: “Welcome to the Democrats’ Nightmare: RFK Jr. Goes Third Party?”)
And now, RFK Jr. is taking another bold step. Kennedy today informed The American Spectator that he has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service. Filed with the D.C. District Court with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as the plaintiff, the lawsuit includes Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking, “All risk assessment reports by the Secret Service regarding Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.” and, “All other communications (including emails, memos, electronic chat, text messages, etc.) sent or received regarding any request for protection,” including those sent to or received by Alejandro Mayorkas (among other officials).
Clearly, Kennedy wants to get to the bottom of why, precisely, he is being denied, even as threats against him accumulate. Getting a look at those communications might be very revealing.
The American Spectator has been watching this story closely, with a special personal interest. (READ MORE: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.’s “There Is Another Kennedy on the Horizon.”)
Our founder and editor in chief, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. was with RFK Jr.’s father, Robert F. Kennedy Sr., in Bloomington, Indiana in April 1968, just weeks before the presidential candidate was assassinated. The title of Tyrrell’s newly released memoir is literally taken from Kennedy’s words to Tyrrell that day. Obviously, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy was a terrible tragedy for this nation, as was the killing of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, five years earlier.
In fact, it was because of these shootings, specifically the RFK Sr. assassination, that the Secret Service provides the protection that it does to candidates today. Or at least should. And especially, one would think, of the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy Sr.