President Joe Biden will be providing Secret Service protection to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following the the failed assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump this past weekend, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Monday afternoon.
“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.,” Mayorkas said.
Kennedy thanked Biden on X after the announcement and celebrated the private security detail that he hired to protect him for the past 15 months.
“Thank you to President Biden for granting me Secret Service protection. And I am so grateful to Gavin deBecker & Associates for keeping me safe for the last 15 months of my Presidential campaign,” Kennedy said.
This morning, Trump urged the Biden administration to give Kennedy Secret Service protection, following the failed assassination attempt on him.
“In light of what is going on in the world today, I believe it is imperative that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. receive Secret Service protection — immediately,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!” Trump added.
RFK Jr.’s father, Bobby Kennedy, and uncle, former president John F. Kennedy, were both assassinated, two of the most consequential acts of political violence in American history.
Throughout his presidential campaign, Kennedy has requested Secret Service protection, only to be denied. Kennedy’s campaign has spent millions on private security to protect him from various threats.
Last year, an armed man impersonating a U.S. Marshal was arrested at a Kennedy campaign event in Los Angeles. He was charged with carrying a loaded firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, and impersonating an officer.
“It is a hopeful sign for our country when a political opponent calls for one’s protection. Maybe our country can unite after all,” Kennedy said on X in response to Trump’s comments.
Kennedy and Trump met Monday afternoon at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, and Kennedy said unity was the subject of the conversation, not the future of his presidential campaign.
Before Mayorkas’s announcement, Representatives Lawler (R., N.Y.) and Torres (D., N.Y.) announced that they will be introducing bipartisan legislation to enhance Secret Service protection for Biden, Trump, and Kennedy in the wake of the failed assassination attempt on Trump.
The Secret Service’s apparent failure to prevent the assassination attempt is the subject of multiple ongoing investigations. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will be testifying next week at a House Oversight Committee hearing to help make sense of what happened on Saturday.
One victim, Corey Comparatore, was killed during the assassination attempt, and two were critically wounded. A bullet grazed Trump’s ear during the shooting, but Trump appears to be healthy and in good spirts after the near-death experience.
Biden said on Sunday that Trump will continue to have all the protection he needs and directed a national-security review of the events leading up to the assassination attempt.