Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will no longer have Secret Service protection after pausing his 2024 campaign for president – but vowing to still run in November on the ballot in all but 10 states.
Some are furious and took to social media to claim the move is to put him more at risk after his brutal assessment of the modern Democratic Party in his speech suspending his campaign.
But RFK Jr. insists that his speech was not out of ‘revenge’ against his former party.
The Democrat-turned-independent is still running in 40 of the 50 states, but he will no longer tout with him the Secret Service security detail President Joe Biden instructed to provide protection for the candidate last month.
The directive for USSS detail to protect Kennedy originally came after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will. no longer receive Secret Service protection after suspending his campaign in 10 states
When candidates for president drop out, it’s standard procedure for their protective detail to be pulled. But RFK Jr. is technically still in the race and has not ended his White House bid – though he no longer has a path towards victory.
The Secret Service has been under enhanced public and congressional scrutiny after a series of events following the security failures that led to the attempt on the former president’s life last month.
Former Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her post after the assassination attempt against Trump.
Those who fall under the protection of the USSS are the president and vice president and their immediate family members, former presidents, first ladies and their children until the age of 16, visiting heads of state and top presidential candidates.
Kennedy lobbied for months to receive protection, noting that he has experienced several security scares and threats to himself and his campaign. He suggested that the delay was political.
On Friday, Kennedy announced on Friday he was suspending his campaign in 10 key states but clarified he was ‘not terminating’ his campaign would remain on the ballot in the remaining 40 states.
Kennedy put his backing with Trump and announced the ‘unity party’ where they would work toward shared values – for example, autonomy to make health-related decisions like receiving vaccines.
RFK Jr. appeared at Donald Trump’s rally in Arizona on Friday after announcing he was not ‘terminating’ but ‘suspending’ his campaign in 10 of the most competitive states
RFK Jr. is expected to join Trump on the campaign trail in the future in less competitive states.
Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream asked if the presidential candidate was ‘motivated’ to back Trump ‘by punishing Democrats.’
‘In anything in my life, I don’t act out of anger or revenge or resentment,’ he replied in the interview Sunday morning.
‘It’s a bad motivation,’ he continued. ‘It’s like swallowing poison and hoping someone else will die and so I don’t do it.’
