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2024 Election

RFK Jr. Says He MUST Have Secret Service Protection Because His Father Was Assassinated 56 Years Ago

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Okay, I think we can all agree Robert F. Kennedy Junior did not inherit his father Robert F. Kennedy’s common sense. But there is at least some good news here because he seems to be gumming up Donald Trump’s, even if he is a conspiracy theorist and possibly an anti-vaxxer. He has, after all, claimed at a presidential dinner last July that COVID-19 was an “ethnically targeted bio-weapon” designed by the Chinese government to be deadly for Caucasians and Blacks but somehow spares Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.

That puts him in league with Marjorie “Jewish space lasers” Greene. So yeah, he’s kind of well, weird.

But right now, he and his campaign aren’t happy that Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas has for the fifth time in a row denied Secret Service protection for the independent presidential candidate, Newsweek reports. The string of denials has incurred the threat of legal action from attorney Aaron Siri of the law firm Siri Glimstad, which is representing Kennedy’s campaign.

The letter, which Kennedy posted to X, Siri says he plans to try to hold Mayorkas personally responsible if Kennedy or a bystander is injured as a result of a lack of Secret Service protection. The letter also portends that Mayorkas is refusing to reveal the names of the individuals the Secret Service has already deemed a threat to the independent candidate.

“If protection is not afforded, we have been authorized to commence an action on the grounds that the repeated denials have been politically motivated and are otherwise capricious,” Siri’s letter reads, dated one day after Mayorkas’ latest denial.

“If any harm befalls Mr. Kennedy or any other member of the public who may be injured or killed in any incident that arises due to lack of Secret Service protection to the candidate and the deterrent it affords, we will seek to hold you accountable.”

“Attacks on public figures often result in serious injury and death to bystanders, and we will not hesitate to represent them in an action against you personally for your conduct.”

Siri wrapped up his letter by appealing to morality, writing: “To be sure, there are things worse than death. Living without integrity is one of them.”

But RFK Jr. with his cockeyed ideas is a little short on integrity, it seems to me.

Mayorkas has consistently turned down Kenneyd’s request for Secret Service protection for a year. His latest letter is identical to the one dated two months earlier, with only the date being changed. The latest denial letter from the DHS director states: “Based on the facts and the recommendation of the advisory committee, I have determined that Secret Service protection for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not warranted at this time.”

The other members of the advisory committee are House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Sergeant at Arms Karen Gibson.

According to Newsweek, Mayorkas may be following DHS guidelines, which say that presidential candidates polling at 15 percent or higher for 30 consecutive days for a major party would be eligible for Secret Service protection if there is less than a year before a general election. For independent candidates like Kennedy, that threshold is 20 percent.

The latest RealClearPolitics average of polls, shows that in a five-way race, GOP candidate Donald Trump is at 42 percent, with President Joe Biden at 40 percent. Kennedy is in third with 10 percent, while Cornel West and Jill Stein are below two percent.

Mayorkas, however, has made some exceptions for these rules, as did his predecessors. Barack Obama in 2007 was given Secret Service protection 551 days before the general election, obviously well outside the one-year threshold.

But Kennedy’s campaign argues Mayorkas is also to consider if there are specific threats against a candidate and the historical evidence of a candidate’s unique background. Since his father Robert F. Kennedy and his uncle John F. Kennedy were both murdered, he does have a point here.

And the batch of letters Kennedy’s campaign sent to Mayorkas focus on these exceptions, referring to the assassinations of the three men.

In the letter, Siri notes that since Kennedy’s father was killed in 1968 by Sirhan Sirhan, at least 32 candidates have received Secret Service protection. He noted that “many of these candidates had less financial support and lower national polling than Mr. Kennedy, and additionally they had not experienced any actual specific attempted harm.”

Kennedy has received specific threats and has dealt with multiple trespassers at his home and properties, a man appearing at an event with a firearm and one person who has threatened to kill Kennedy on June 6, the same day that his father was killed.

“The Secret Service revealed numerous instances of threats to the candidate which included a threat of ‘serious terrorist act’ including one seeking to ‘bury’ him,” Siri wrote in his letter to Mayorkas.

Kennedy said he believes this is an attempt by the Biden administration, through Mayorkas, to refuse him Secret Service protection to force him to spend his own campaign funds for private security, instead of on his bid for the presidency and the costly process of gathering enough signatures to ensure he appears on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Well, the easy way to avoid any possible dangerous outcomes is for Kennedy to drop out. He’s not going to win anyway, but he is going to siphon votes from Biden in favor of Trump. That way he’d be safe and the country would be too.

Megan Hamilton
meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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