Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took to Twitter Friday to complain that his request for secret service protection has been denied. “Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection,” he tweeted. “But not me.”
Kennedy wants special treatment and taxpayer-funded security, and he’s shameless enough to invoke his father’s assassination to get it, which just adds to how much of an asshole he is. At any rate, there’s nothing unusual in the denial of his request. In fact, granting it would be a departure from standard practice.
The service is provided to “major presidential and vice presidential candidates” after consideration by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and an advisory committee that includes congressional leadership of both parties. They consider a number of factors, including polling thresholds and “a specific assessment of threats against that candidate.” Kennedy’s campaign doesn’t cut it when it comes to polling right now. The “67-page report from the world's leading protection firm” that Kennedy says he provided the committee seems not to have convinced them there was justification.
The Secret Service’s FAQ says they normally provide security for candidates and their spouses “within 120 days of a general presidential election.” In the 2004 election, frontrunner John Kerry didn’t get protection until the primaries had begun in February of that year. The earliest a candidate has received protection was about nine months before the primaries in 2007, when former President Barack Obama’s private campaign security was replaced by the Secret Service in May 2007. As the first prominent Black candidate for president, he needed it for pretty obvious reasons. President Joe Biden didn’t get it until March 2020.
Which takes us back to Kennedy and this part of his tweet: “Typical turnaround time for pro forma protection requests from presidential candidates is 14-days. After 88-days of no response and after several follow-ups by our campaign, the Biden Administration just denied our request.”
That seems like a contrived effort to include those specific numbers, which carry significance for white supremacists and neo-Nazis. The Anti-Defamation League deems them “hate symbols.” The “14-day” bit seems to have been plucked out of thin air—it doesn't appear anywhere on the Secret Service’s site, and news reports about other candidates’ protection don’t mention it. And Kennedy just happened to get the rejection on the 88th day after he submitted the request? Really?
Given the company he’s been keeping, what this tweet really feels like is another call to his neo-Nazi fan base.
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