It took months of lobbying to get Secret Service protection for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. when he was a presidential candidate. Now that he has suspended his campaign and hopped aboard the Trump bandwagon, the Secret Service will be withdrawing that protection.
The Secret Service has ended its protection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after the political scion suspended his presidential campaign.
President Biden, 81, had instructed the protective agency to provide security for Kennedy, 70, last month after the failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, 78.
Kennedy had publicly and privately lobbied for Secret Service protection for months, citing various security scares and suggesting that political motivations were behind the delay in his getting it.
If there’s one guy in the United States right now who needs a good security detail at least as much as former President Trump, it’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – he has been the recipient of threats before this, and after he endorsed Donald Trump, we can expect the threats to multiply like rabbits.
At one point, Kennedy’s legal team claimed to have received evidence of 34 instances of threats or concerning screeds against him, Newsweek reported. Kennedy’s uncle President John F. Kennedy and father Bobby Kennedy were both assassinated in the 1960s.
Then Friday, RFK Jr., a onetime independent presidential hopeful, effectively bowed out of the race, announcing that he was “suspending” although “not terminating” his White House bid.
The environmental lawyer revealed plans to yank his name off the ballot in about 10 battleground states and also endorsed Trump, joining him at an Arizona rally Friday.
While major-party candidates for president are typically given Secret Service protection, that protection is usually scaled back or withdrawn if a candidate drops out. That would seem to be the catch here; RFK Jr. has not ended his candidacy. He has suspended his campaign, but will still appear on the ballot in as many as 40 states; he plans to remove his name from the ballot in swing states where (he is hoping) his support will help bring the Trump campaign to a win.
But he’s still technically a candidate, and people in the non-swing states will be able to vote for him for president.
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After Donald Trump himself, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may be the man the left hates most – maybe even more than the vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance. A Kennedy not only endorses Donald Trump but appears on stage with him – campaigning for him? That’s going to set the nut squad on fire, and we’ve already seen what the nut squad can do when they’re agitated.
Granted, the Secret Service’s reputation at the moment isn’t all that hot.
The Secret Service has been in hot water over the assassination attempt against Trump during his July 13 rally in Butler, Pa., where a would-be killer’s bullet grazed his right ear.
Suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to crawl across a shed roof and get about 130 yards away from the former president. Firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed and two other crowd-goers — David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74 — were severely injured in the attack.
Mr. Kennedy may be better off hiring private security.
At any rate, the man needs a security detail, whether the Secret Service rescinds this bad decision or not. His suspending his campaign and supporting Trump was an act of principle, and nothing drives the left crazier than people with principles.
