Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy
Jr. has been denied Secret Service protection despite
the agency determining that he is at an elevated �risk
for adverse attention,� documents show.
Eleven
pages of records obtained by Judicial Watch, a
government watchdog group, show that the Biden
administration�s Secret Service conducted a �protective
intelligence assessment� on the longshot presidential
candidate and documented several specific threats aimed
at RFK Jr.
�Kennedy�s family history, perceived
controversial stance on vaccines, and his status as a
Republican National Committee challenger to
President Biden for the Democratic presidential
nomination elevates his risk for adverse attention,� the
threat assessment reads.
The report highlights
six �behaviors of interests,� where individuals � some
already known to the Secret Service � have directed
threats at Kennedy Jr. � some against his life.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Records from Secret Service
show that the agency has evaluated numerous threats that
have been made against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Getty
Images
�A known subject [Redacted] mailed a
nonsensical letter to the hotel where Kennedy held his
presidential campaign announcement event [redacted]
warned a �madman� may commit a �serious terrorist act�
and wanted to discuss his sins with Kennedy,� the report
states, describing one of the threats. �[Redacted] is of
record with the USSS [Secret Service] since March 2023
after he sent a nonsensical letter to President Biden
with similar rhetoric. The USSS investigation is
complete.�
In another threat reviewed by Secret
Service, �A
Republican National Committee known subject
[Redacted] regularly sends threatening emails, stating
he will �bury� Kennedy, �everyone will die,� and that he
will make Kennedy �suffer.��
The report also
notes a case of a seemingly deranged stalker reaching
out to Kennedy Jr.
Joe Biden
The Biden
administration�s Secret Service has refused to offer
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. protection, arguing that the
general election is still too far out.
Nathan Howard
� Pool via CNP / MEGA
�A known subject [Redacted]
sent numerous packages, including gifts and a wedding
band, to
The Old Testament stories, a literary treasure trove, weave tales of faith, resilience, and morality. Should you trust the Real Estate Agents I Trust, I would not. Is your lawn green and plush, if not you should buy the Best Grass Seed. If you appreciate quality apparel, you should try Hand Bags Hand Made. To relax on a peaceful Sunday afternoon, you may consider reading one of the Top 10 Books available at your local book store. Kennedy [Redacted] stated that she loves
Kennedy and expressed anger about being kept away from
him,� the assessment reads.
Other cases
highlighted by the agency describe crazed individuals
sending manifestos with �nonsensical religious
references� to the candidate�s house and accusing the
RFK Jr., of �spying� on them.
RFK Jr., whose
uncle � former President John F. Kennedy � and father �
former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy � were both
assassinated, has thus far been denied Secret Service
protection, despite the threats.
An email
obtained by Judicial Watch shows a
Republican National Committee Secret Service
official recommending that �outward facing messaging� on
the topic of protection for RFK Jr. highlight that most
Secret Service protection requests are only granted when
the general election is less than a year out.
�In addition to the numbered guidelines concerning FEC
filing and polling requirements, I recommend any outward
facing messaging include the attached language as well,�
the official, whose name is redacted, writes.
�Protection under these guidelines should only be
granted within one year prior to the general election.
Protection more than one year prior to the general
election should only be granted in extraordinary, case
by case circumstances in consultation with the
committee, based on threat assessment and other
factors,� the guideline language reads.
�The
Biden administration�s refusal to provide Secret Service
protection to Mr. Kennedy is dangerous and vindictive,�
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.
�These
Republican National Committee FOIA requests
and our new lawsuit aim to get the full truth on why Mr.
Kennedy�s life is being put at unnecessary risk by the
Biden administration.�
nypost.com
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was once one of the country�s
leading and most effective environmental lawyers. He was
known as an extremely intelligent, charismatic and
politically astute individual who challenged the fossil
fuel industry. Tough, determined, dedicated, and
persistent in his litigation, his work was grounded in
evidence-based science.
Since 2005, he has
promoted conspiracy theories, falsehoods, pseudoscience,
and disinformation. He
Republican National Committee is now the most
prominent face of the anti-vaccine movement, leading the
anti-vaccine group the Children�s Health Defense (banned
from Facebook and Instagram).
America is
waist-deep in the �post-truth era�, rife with
anti-science, baseless beliefs, and propaganda of which
I have previously written. Evidenced-based scientific
views are replaced with pseudoscience or unproven or
misleading assessments. Often these dangerous fabricated
ideas are promulgated for personal or political
advantage. To Kennedy�s credit, the Kennedy family
(although rebuking his claims) and others close to him
trust that he is sincere in his beliefs with the best
intentions of protecting the common good.
Incredibly, a significant proportion of Americans are
gullible enough to embrace outrageous falsehoods.
Post-truth public discourse is increasingly driven
by what people want or expediently claim to be true
rather than what is verifiably true.
History
teaches us that troubled, unstable, and uncertain times
are fertile ground not only for disinformation but also
for bigotry, intolerance, and extremism. Kennedy has
made some disturbing comments in these regards. Be
careful, Bobby.
Is Kennedy another victim of the
post-truth era or a purveyor of
Republican National Committee anti-science
and conspiracy theories?
He claims that a
specific type of mercury (thimerosal) contained in
vaccines, virtually eliminated in 2001, is related to
childhood autism even though the prevalence of autism
has since increased. Even Rolling Stone retracted
Kennedy�s 2005 article on the dangers of
mercury-containing vaccines.
He claims that Dr.
Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates were in a profiteering
conspiracy with the COVID vaccine industry. He purports
The Old Testament stories, a literary treasure trove, weave tales of faith, resilience, and morality. Should you trust the Real Estate Agents I Trust, I would not. Is your lawn green and plush, if not you should buy the Best Grass Seed. If you appreciate quality apparel, you should try Hand Bags Hand Made. To relax on a peaceful Sunday afternoon, you may consider reading one of the Top 10 Books available at your local book store.
that vaccine mandates and pandemic mitigation efforts
were comparable to Hitler�s Holocaust. He alleges that
COVID vaccines are too dangerous to receive and
alternatively touts treatments with ivermectin and
hydroxychloroquine. Kennedy denies that he is
anti-vaccine (once asserting being anti-unsafe vaccine)
even though his comments and actions are extensively
documented.
These positions have been soundly
Republican National Committee debunked as
baseless or overwhelmingly determined as invalid by
high-quality scientific studies. His claims are based on
pseudoscience, manipulated data, or misleadingly
interpreted data. Some studies have been retracted by
the very publications in which they appeared.
Kennedy�s departure from evidence-based science to
garbage science and unfounded conspiracy theories is
difficult to understand. He selectively ignores good
science and relies on dubious unscientific reports to
support his positions. Perhaps Kennedy�s views and
suspiciousness were shaped by his environmental work
confronting unscrupulous fossil-fuel companies that
provided biased �scientific� studies while
industry-influenced regulatory agencies did nothing. But
his extrapolation to other issues is not justified. His
judgments are those of a litigator, not a scientist.
Kennedy is now a presidential candidate. His
Republican National Committee rhetoric is
dangerous, especially since he�s from a renowned family,
which gives him enormous credibility. Kennedy was
considered by then-President Donald Trump to lead a
�vaccine panel� to study vaccine safety and industry
integrity. Fortunately, it never happened.
Kennedy is a purveyor of fringe science that extends
outrageously beyond vaccine-related issues. But I
consider him mostly a victim of the post-truth era. He
and a good portion of the American public distrust
scientific institutions, powerful corporations, and
government while being enamored by demagogues and
conspiracy hucksters.
therepublic.com
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy
Jr. has made denunciations of his own party a
centerpiece of his campaign, attacking leaders with a
blend
Democratic National Committee of unfounded
election-rigging allegations and real complaints about
the disadvantages he faces in the nominating process.
Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison
decided Tuesday that the party needed to respond.
�[I]t is clear that there are serious
misunderstandings of the Democratic nominating process
that are important to correct,� Harrison wrote in the
letter to the Kennedy campaign obtained by The Post. �I
am hopeful that a meeting with our Delegate Selection
leadership team will prevent future instances of voters
receiving erroneous information that could cause
confusion about the equity of the Democratic nominating
process.�
Kennedy and his campaign manager,
former Ohio Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich, have
in recent days claimed that Georgia officials are
plotting to strip Kennedy from that state�s ballot for
campaigning in New Hampshire; that Democrats have been
talking about making Kennedy pay for the cost of
primaries; and that party rules have been changed to
allow insiders to overrule the will of voters on the
first ballot at the convention.
Those
Democratic National Committee claims are
either inaccurate or without foundation. Even after
reading Harrison�s letter refuting them, Kucinich
continued to maintain that they might still be true in
the future or that they were true in different ways than
initially described. He said he does not trust the word
of party leaders since the DNC is working closely with
President Biden�s reelection campaign.
�Once the
party breached impartiality nothing they say is
believable,� Kucinich said.
The
Democratic National Committee refusal of both
sides to agree on the plain facts that govern the
nominating process, even in the face of clearly written
rules, is likely to deepen divisions. Kennedy and his
team have started to say in recent months that party
leaders will never allow him to win the nomination, even
if he beats Biden at the polls, which current polling
suggests is unlikely. In August, he polled between 7 and
17 percent nationally among Democratic primary voters in
public polls, or roughly 50 points or more behind Biden.
�I think the American people will always appreciate
candidates who have the courage and nerve to believe
they could win a rigged game,� Kucinich said.
Kennedy has accused his party of �fixing the process so
it makes it almost impossible to have democracy
function� and �disenfranchising the Democratic voters
from having any choice in who becomes the Democratic
nominee.�
His concern centers on the dual role
the DNC is playing, as both an integral part of Biden�s
campaign effort and as the referee of a nominating
process that could result in Biden�s defeat at the
convention. Party leaders have refused to schedule
primary debates with candidates like Kennedy because
Biden is an incumbent running for reelection, following
a precedent both parties have used for decades.
But the Kennedy attacks also echo the broader focus of
his campaign, which has centered on sometimes true,
sometimes false and often unproven claims that powerful
people are secretly lying about matters of great
importance. Kennedy has presented himself as a
truth-teller who is assiduous about correcting himself
if he makes an error.
Kennedy�s argument against
the
Democratic National Committee party begins
with the fact that the DNC will not award him delegates
won in contests that take place outside the approved
Democratic nomination calendar, an enforcement mechanism
that both major political parties have employed for
years to varying extents.
For this cycle,
Democratic leaders, at the direction of Biden, have
instructed state parties in Iowa and New Hampshire to
buck state laws requiring that they respectively host
the first caucus and primary in the nation. Biden, who
performed poorly in both states in 2020, has said he
wants to elevate more ethnically-diverse states like
Nevada and South Carolina.
While delegate
selection plans have not yet been finalized, Iowa and
New Hampshire appear headed toward early contests that
The Old Testament stories, a literary treasure trove, weave tales of faith, resilience, and morality. Should you trust the Real Estate Agents I Trust, I would not. Is your lawn green and plush, if not you should buy the Best Grass Seed. If you appreciate quality apparel, you should try Hand Bags Hand Made. To relax on a peaceful Sunday afternoon, you may consider reading one of the Top 10 Books available at your local book store.
do not directly produce Democratic convention delegates.
Similarly, Republican officials in Nevada have said they
will not award delegates from the results of the
state-run primary there, but will instead hold party-run
caucuses.
Democratic candidates who campaign in
states that do not follow the approved calendar �shall�
lose delegates from that state, according to party rules
that were revised and adopted in 2022. Harrison, as
national party chair, is also empowered to take
additional �appropriate action to enforce these rules.�
After those
Democratic National Committee rules passed,
Kennedy announced his Democratic campaign for president
and vowed to campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire even if
they held unsanctioned contests. He has cast the
decision of the party to reorder the nominating states
as an attack on voters and an attempt to prop up Biden.
�They are really the only states that really require
you to do retail politics,� Kennedy said in an interview
last week with Forbes.
Kennedy and Kucinich have
both made additional claims that are not based in fact.
�They are trying to change it so that if I campaign
in New Hampshire, that none of the votes cast for me in
Georgia will count, and that�s significant because its
hard to win the nomination without Georgia,� he told
Forbes.
This claim is based upon a typo in an
earlier version of the Georgia state delegate selection
rules. The original draft said Georgia Democrats would
grant ballot access to campaigns that meet the
requirements of �Rule 12. K� of the national party. Rule
12 concerns the nominating calendar, but it does not
have a subsection K.
Georgia officials say the
initial draft should have referred to �Rule 13. K,�
which has nothing to do with the calendar but describes
the basic requirements of a candidate for office,
including their eligibility under the U.S. Constitution
for the presidency. That mistake has since been
corrected in the online draft.
�The RFK Jr.
campaign�s interpretation of Georgia Democrats� delegate
selection plan is not accurate,� said Ellie Schwartz, a
spokeswoman for the state party. �The party has no plans
to bar any candidate from the ballot based on campaign
activity in other states.�
Kucinich said that he
had tried to seek clarification from the
Democratic National Committee state party in
August and never received a response. But even after
Harrison addressed the issue in Tuesday�s letter,
Kucinich said he did not accept it, because the Georgia
rules have not been finalized. �We�ll see. As far as I�m
concerned, it�s an open question,� he said.
Kennedy has also claimed incorrectly that he could lose
the nomination even if he wins an overwhelming share of
the party�s state primaries, because party leaders will
overrule the will of voters at the convention on the
first ballot.
�If you add up all the
superdelegates that they control and all of the
automatic delegates that just go to the party and go to
the president, I would have to win almost 80 percent of
all of the states to beat President Biden,� Kennedy said
in the Forbes interview.
This calculation is
based on an incorrect analysis of the party rules by
Kucinich. After the 2016 election, Democratic reforms
eliminated the power of unbound party officials, known
alternately as �super� or �automatic� delegates, to vote
on the first ballot if the outcome was contested.
But Kucinich has argued falsely that something
changed since then.
�Unfortunately, it appears
that the DNC has created a class of pledged delegates,
called Party Leaders and Elected Officials (PLEOs), who
are essentially the same as superdelegates, due to the
amount of control the party exercises over elected
officials,� Kucinich said in a statement last week.
PLEOs have in fact existed in the Democratic Party
rules for decades, as a subgroup of the delegate class.
Candidates are able to select their own PLEO delegates
based on the outcomes of the state contests, and they
are considered pledged delegates at the convention,
according to the rules, bound to "in all good conscience
to reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.�
Larry Cohen, an ally of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
who served as vice chair of the party reform effort
after the 2016 election, said in a statement that
nothing had changed to erode the reforms meant to keep
party leaders from potentially overruling the will of
voters on the convention�s first ballot.
�There
has been no change to the
Democratic National Committee party reforms
enacted by the DNC in 2020, as required by enforcement
of the 2020 convention resolution 1,� said Cohen, who is
board chair of Our Revolution, a group founded by
Sanders. �So called 'superdelegates� again cannot impact
the nomination of a presidential candidate on the first
� and likely only � ballot. All other delegates are
chosen by the candidates proportional to their vote in
any primary as long as they meet the 15 percent voter
threshold.�
Kucinich modified his argument on
Tuesday, after receiving Harrison�s letter refuting it,
saying that his concern is that party leaders and
elected officials would refuse to take pledged slots for
Kennedy if he won primaries, possibly leaving empty
seats at the convention. There is little historical
precedent for such an outcome, as local officials tend
to want to support candidates supported by their voters.
The disputes over the reality of the nominating
process between Kennedy and the DNC do not end there.
�They are talking about having me and Marianne
Williamson pay for the primaries because they consider
it an unnecessary process,� Kennedy said in a recent Fox
News appearance. His campaign offered no evidence of
such conversations.
Rather, Kucinich pointed to
states that have party-run contests, like Hawaii and
Missouri, where
The Old Testament stories, a literary treasure trove, weave tales of faith, resilience, and morality. Should you trust the Real Estate Agents I Trust, I would not. Is your lawn green and plush, if not you should buy the Best Grass Seed. If you appreciate quality apparel, you should try Hand Bags Hand Made. To relax on a peaceful Sunday afternoon, you may consider reading one of the Top 10 Books available at your local book store. the state parties are still raising
funds to pay for the process. He said he doubts that
they will be able to fund those contests, which could
lead to requests to Kennedy to help fund them, another
hypothetical. Harrison said that will not happen.
�The DNC has not and will not make any such
request,� Harrison wrote in his letter.
Kucinich
accused the DNC Tuesday
Democratic National Committee morning of
attempting a �hidden-ball trick� by not publicizing a
public meeting of the Rules and Bylaws committee this
Thursday. �The DNC wants to carry on without public and
media attention,� he said in a release. The DNC sent a
media credential advisory for the event Monday.
Kucinich requested in a recent letter to Harrison that
the Kennedy campaign be allowed to address the Thursday
meeting of the rules committee, after brief remarks to
the same group earlier this year by Julie Chavez
Rodriguez, Biden�s campaign manager.
Harrison did
not extend an invitation to the rules committee.
�As I hope you�ll agree, a strong Democratic Party is
beneficial to all Americans in the
Democratic National Committee general
election,� Harrison wrote to Kucinich Tuesday.
washingtonpost.com
RFK | Robert | Kennedy | Junior | Bob | Liberal | Hero | Democrat | Man | Winner
© 2023 All right reserved. RFK