On Wednesday, the 56th anniversary of his father's assassination, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. again appealed for Secret Service protection, arguing in a Fox News interview that his family history makes him more likely to be targeted.
“I was with my father when he died in Los Angeles in 1968,” said Kennedy, who was 14 at the time of the shooting. He asserted that “the White House was involved in the decision” to refuse a request for Secret Service protection, and that his campaign was important enough to merit it.
A White House spokesman declined to comment.
Kennedy has requested Secret Service protection for more than a year, even before he became an independent candidate. He said his request for Secret Service protection when he was running against President Biden in the Democratic primary last July was denied by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has the authority to approve the request.
Kennedy has made the request repeatedly since, circulating online petitions in support of it, but has been rejected each time. In an interview on Wednesday, Kennedy pointed to several incidents that demonstrate the need for increased security, including the break-in at his California home and the incident in September when an armed man tried to meet with Kennedy at a campaign event and was arrested and charged with gun crimes.
Mayorkas previously said he turned down Kennedy's request on the recommendation of a committee of top congressional leaders.
“Ultimately it's my decision, but I've followed their recommendations every time,” he said in May.
Mayorkas could consider several factors when deciding who to give protection, with the criteria favoring major party candidates. Before Nikki Haley finished her Republican presidential campaign, a congressional committee recommended she be given Secret Service protection, in part because of her strength in national polls. The Secret Service also noted that “some candidates received protection early in their campaigns pursuant to presidential memoranda.”
For Democratic or Republican primary candidates, the approval rating threshold is 15% or higher for 30 consecutive days. For independent or third-party candidates, the threshold is 20%. Kennedy's national approval rating is 10% on average, according to Real Clear Politics, which the guidelines cite as one of its approval rating benchmarks.
This standard meant that, with a few exceptions, most third-party and independent candidates were denied Secret Service protection. George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama, ran as a third-party presidential candidate in 1968 and was given Secret Service protection by President Lyndon B. Johnson after the murder of Senator Robert F. Kennedy (Kennedy's father) during the Democratic primary that year.
The rules have changed significantly over time. After the death of Senator Kennedy, Secret Service protection for presidential candidates was greatly expanded, but historically the rules for third party candidates have been restrictive. Ross Perot, the most prominent third party candidate since Wallace, did not request Secret Service protection during his presidential campaign, so it is unclear whether he would have been eligible.
Kennedy said Wednesday that Secret Service protection was given to candidates who “had lower approval ratings than me and were less risky than me.” In another interview, he cited Jesse Jackson as an example of a candidate who had “a fraction of my approval rating” and received Secret Service protection. But Jackson ran as a Democrat, not an independent, and at one point had an approval rating of 20 percent during the 1984 campaign.
