OAN’s Abril Elfi
5:25 PM – Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Texas Senator Ted Cruz urged the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, to approve presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s (RFK Jr.) request for additional protection from the Secret Service.
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Cruz (R-Texas) wrote a letter to DHS’s secretary urging answers as to why the Biden Administration has denied JFK Jr.’s request of Secret Service protection.
“I ask that you act swiftly to provide this major presidential candidate the protection that his exceptional circumstance so clearly warrants,” Cruz wrote.
Kennedy announced online in July that his request for Secret Service protection had been denied.
He claimed that since his father’s killing in 1968, presidential contenders have been protected by the Secret Service. Kennedy’s plea was denied 88 days later. Cruz wondered why the process took so long compared to “the standard fourteen-day turnaround for this type of request.”
In September, an armed man impersonating a U.S. marshal was apprehended at one of JFK Jr.’s Los Angeles appearances.
JFK Jr. stated that his security identified and apprehended the individual until Los Angeles police officers finally showed up.
The individual did not brandish the firearm or threaten anyone at the gathering, according to police.
The presidential candidate stated at the time that he was still hopeful that President Biden would offer him Secret Service safeguards. The Texas senator stated that the arrest should demonstrate that the denial of protection is neglectful.
“This near assassination attempt hardly came as a surprise given that Mr. Kennedy’s original request for Secret Service protection included a sixty-seven page report from a leading private security firm detailing a myriad of unique and well-established safety risks,” Cruz said in the letter.
Cruz also questioned Mayorkas about why previous prominent presidential candidates had received exemptions before the 120-day threshold, “setting a clear precedent for exceptions to the general rule.” There are 383 days till the election on November 5th, 2024.
He further questioned why the Secret Service declared Kennedy “at risk of assassination” purely due to his family’s pedigree, if only to deny him protections.
The Texas senator has now requested that Mayorkas respond to his questions before the end of the month.
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