Ecuadorean assassination prompts RFK demand for Secret Service protection
The killing of an Ecuadorean politician and threats to Joe Biden prompt alarm from Robert F Kennedy Jr, whose uncle and father were assassinated.
The campaign of Democrat presidential contender Robert F Kennedy Jr has demanded secret service protection following the assassination of an Ecuadorean presidential candidate and the FBI’s fatal shooting of a man who had threatened to kill Joe Biden.
Kennedy’s campaign manager, Dennis Kucinich, said the Biden administration should afford Robert F Kennedy, whose father and uncle were assassinated in 1968 and 1963, respectively, US secret service protection for the duration of his presidential campaign citing, an “escalating threat environment”.
“The killing of Mr Villavicencio proves how volatile the political climate has become,” Mr Kucinich, a former Democrat member of congress, said in a statement, referring to the Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, 59, who was shot on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) at a campaign event in Quito, allegedly by gangs connected the drug trade who opposed his policies.
“Mr Kennedy has met all criteria for protection. The only conceivable reason he is being denied is because of a conscious decision by the White House to deny him security and damn the consequences,” he added.
Mr Kennedy, 69, in July complained the White House had denied him Secret Service protection despite his submitting “a 67-page report from the world‘s leading protection firm, detailing unique and well established security and safety risks aside from commonplace death threats”.
Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection. Â But not me.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 28, 2023
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Typical turnaround time for pro forma protection requests from presidential candidates is 14-days.  After 88-days of no response and after several…
“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,” Mr Kennedy said on social media in a tweet that went viral.
US law requires the Secret Service to provide security to “major presidential candidates” and their spouses, as decided by a panel of top congressional and White officials, 120 days before the presidential election date, although it can and has been provided earlier.
Former Democrat president Jimmy Carter gave Mr Kennedy’s other uncle, then senator Ted Kennedy, who similarly challenged an incumbent Democratic president his party’s nomination, Secret Service protection in September 1979, according to CNN, a little over a year before the 1980 presidential election.
According to an average of political betting markets compiled by RealClearPolitics, Mr Kennedy is currently the third most likely candidate to win the 2024 election, trailing far behind Joe Biden (first) and Donald Trump (second), but ahead of Democrat Gavin Newsom and Republican Ron DeSantis.
“I call upon President Biden to recognise his responsibility, not only for the safety of all presidential candidates, but for the protection of the political process itself,” Mr Kucinich said, pointing to recent threats on Joe Biden’s life.
The FBI shot and killed a 75-year-old Craig Robertson, on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) in Provo, Utah after he had threatened to assassinate the president, who was scheduled to visit Salt Lake City for a campaign event later that day.
“In a democracy, it is supposed to be voters, not political assassins, who decide who shall take office. Candidates must be able to campaign free from threat and fear,” Mr Kucinich added.
Asked in an interview by podcaster Joe Rogan in June about whether he was worried about being assassinated, Mr Kennedy said that he “took precautions”.
“I gotta be careful. I’m aware of that danger. I don’t live in fear of it — at all,” he said.
Mr Kennedy, who has repeatedly argued the CIA had involvement in the murder of his father and uncle, contrary to official government reports, has opposed US confrontation with Russia over Ukraine, and advocated for a stricter testing regime for new vaccines, putting him sharply at odds with the Biden administration.
His campaign has resubmitted an application for Secret Service protection.
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