48 hours after a 'deluded gunman' with no internet footprint tried to assassinate Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally from a nearby rooftop that should have been a layup for the Secret Service, the Biden administration is finally giving Secret Service protection to Robert Kennedy, Jr.
"In light of this weekend's events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr.," said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, adding "We are in a heightened and very dynamic threat environment."
MAYORKAS: "The President has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr." pic.twitter.com/oJKUAVs0jD
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 15, 2024
Earlier in the day, Trump said it was "imperative" that Kennedy be granted Secret Service protection.
"Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!" he said on Truth Social.
Over the weekend, Kennedy security consultant Gavin de Becker told Politico that the campaign had a pending formal request with the DHS.
Kennedy has repeatedly asked for Secret Service protection throughout his campaign for president - including after a man was arrested twice in the same day for scaling the fence of Kennedy's Los Angeles home last October.
Kennedy had been twice refused by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
"It’s not right for the President to provide protection to his family and political favorites while denying it to political rivals. 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," Kennedy wrote on X at the time.
President Biden displays a bust of my father in the oval office, but he seems to have forgotten this critical tenet of American democracy. During his administration, we’ve seen the wholesale corruption of federal law-enforcement agencies to censor criticism of White House…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) October 27, 2023
The incident came roughly a month after an armed man posing as a US Marshall was arrested at a Los Angeles event.
Kennedy made a third request for protection in an Oct. 25 letter to Mayorkas, detailing the September 15 incident, as well as the Oct. 25 incident involving a man named Jonathan Macht.
Mr. Macht, 28, was arrested on the morning of Oct. 25 at Mr. Kennedy’s Los Angeles property after being detained by the candidate’s security detail. He climbed a fence and asked to see Mr. Kennedy, according to the LAPD.
Authorities said the man was taken into custody at a nearby police station where he was cited for trespassing and then released. Police said he returned to Mr. Kennedy’s home and was arrested at 5:45 p.m. for violating a protective order. He is being held on $30,000 bail.
Mr. Macht is known to the U.S. Secret Service and Mr. Kennedy’s security Gavin de Becker and Associates (GDBA), Mr. Kennedy’s campaign said.
“GDBA had notified the Secret Service about this specific obsessed individual several times in recent months, and shared alarming communications he has sent to the candidate,” according to the press release. -Epoch Times
"After being released from police custody, the man immediately returned to Kennedy's residence and was arrested again. The candidate was home at the time of both arrests," Kennedy's campaign said in a statement.
Not the norm...
While the law dictates that all major presidential candidates and their spouses must be protected within 120 days of an election, history reveals that several have received Secret Service detail much further out than that - with Obama receiving it 551 days before an election, Trump and Ben Carson receiving it a year before the 2016 election (when Trump was a 'joke' candidate), and Ted Kennedy receiving it 410 days before the 1979 election.
Maybe they'll do a better job than they did on Saturday, should an assassin target Kennedy.
48 hours after a ‘deluded gunman‘ with no internet footprint tried to assassinate Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally from a nearby rooftop that should have been a layup for the Secret Service, the Biden administration is finally giving Secret Service protection to Robert Kennedy, Jr.
“In light of this weekend’s events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr.,” said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, adding “We are in a heightened and very dynamic threat environment.”
MAYORKAS: “The President has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr.” pic.twitter.com/oJKUAVs0jD
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 15, 2024
Earlier in the day, Trump said it was “imperative” that Kennedy be granted Secret Service protection.
“Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!” he said on Truth Social.
Over the weekend, Kennedy security consultant Gavin de Becker told Politico that the campaign had a pending formal request with the DHS.
Kennedy has repeatedly asked for Secret Service protection throughout his campaign for president – including after a man was arrested twice in the same day for scaling the fence of Kennedy’s Los Angeles home last October.
Kennedy had been twice refused by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“It’s not right for the President to provide protection to his family and political favorites while denying it to political rivals. 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,” Kennedy wrote on X at the time.
President Biden displays a bust of my father in the oval office, but he seems to have forgotten this critical tenet of American democracy. During his administration, we’ve seen the wholesale corruption of federal law-enforcement agencies to censor criticism of White House…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) October 27, 2023
The incident came roughly a month after an armed man posing as a US Marshall was arrested at a Los Angeles event.
Kennedy made a third request for protection in an Oct. 25 letter to Mayorkas, detailing the September 15 incident, as well as the Oct. 25 incident involving a man named Jonathan Macht.
Mr. Macht, 28, was arrested on the morning of Oct. 25 at Mr. Kennedy’s Los Angeles property after being detained by the candidate’s security detail. He climbed a fence and asked to see Mr. Kennedy, according to the LAPD.
Authorities said the man was taken into custody at a nearby police station where he was cited for trespassing and then released. Police said he returned to Mr. Kennedy’s home and was arrested at 5:45 p.m. for violating a protective order. He is being held on $30,000 bail.
Mr. Macht is known to the U.S. Secret Service and Mr. Kennedy’s security Gavin de Becker and Associates (GDBA), Mr. Kennedy’s campaign said.
“GDBA had notified the Secret Service about this specific obsessed individual several times in recent months, and shared alarming communications he has sent to the candidate,” according to the press release. –Epoch Times
“After being released from police custody, the man immediately returned to Kennedy’s residence and was arrested again. The candidate was home at the time of both arrests,” Kennedy’s campaign said in a statement.
Not the norm…
While the law dictates that all major presidential candidates and their spouses must be protected within 120 days of an election, history reveals that several have received Secret Service detail much further out than that – with Obama receiving it 551 days before an election, Trump and Ben Carson receiving it a year before the 2016 election (when Trump was a ‘joke’ candidate), and Ted Kennedy receiving it 410 days before the 1979 election.
Maybe they’ll do a better job than they did on Saturday, should an assassin target Kennedy.
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