WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden He finally ordered the Secret Service to protect independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following the attempted assassination of former president and presidential candidate Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reported on Monday.
“In light of the events of this weekend, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection for Robert Kennedy Jr,” he told reporters.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nephew of the assassinated former president John F. Kennedyand son of assassinated former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, said in July last year that the Biden administration had denied him Secret Service protection during the campaign.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted on the social network X, formerly Twitter, that he sent numerous requests to the Department of Homeland Security, which is in charge of providing this protection, but was denied each time. “Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued the official verdict and told me that protection was not guaranteed at this time,” he said.
“The typical response time for presidential candidate protection requests is 14 days. After 88 days without a response and after several follow-ups by our campaign, the Biden Administration simply denied our request,” he stressed.
For nearly three decades, the Department of Homeland Security has enabled protection in the 120 days leading up to primary elections, interpreting that date as the true start of the election. However, the Biden Administration did not comply at the time with the fact that Kennedy was the only declared candidate to compete with Biden in the Democratic Party primaries. Kennedy subsequently ran as an independent candidate.
Following the assassination of Trump, Biden agreed to provide protection to the independent candidate.
divided country
Kennedy Jr. spoke out about the assassination attempt on Trump, comparing it to the tragic killings of his father, Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy.
During an interview with the channel NewsNationKennedy Jr. said the current political climate bears similarities to the 1960s, when his father, uncle and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated amid widespread political and racial upheaval.
“When my uncle was assassinated in 1963, the country was divided. When my father was assassinated, it was perhaps the most divisive period since the Civil War. And today, we are back in a similar environment,” he said.
Kennedy urged Americans to take responsibility for their actions and to abandon hate speech that contributes to violence.
Source: With information from AFP