RFK Jr. says DHS denied request for Secret Service protection

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Friday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied his request for Secret Service protection.

“Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection. But not me,” Kennedy said on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.

“Our campaign’s request included 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,” he added.

The Secret Service is authorized to protect major presidential and vice presidential candidates and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election. The Homeland Security secretary, in consultation with an advisory committee of House and Senate leadership, determines which candidates are in that “major” category. 

The 2024 election, in which Kennedy is a candidate, is more than 460 days away. 

Reached for confirmation, the Secret Service referred The Hill to DHS, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Kennedy, a long-shot candidate who has faced forceful Democratic pushback, said in his post that his request for protection went 88 days without response before Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he determined “that Secret Service protection for Robert F Kennedy Jr is not warranted at this time.” 

Kennedy is the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968, and the nephew of former President Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963.