WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� President Joe Biden has directed the U.S. Secret Service to protect independent presidential , after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the Homeland Security secretary said Monday.
Kennedy is a longshot to win Electoral College votes, much less the presidency. But his campaign events have drawn large crowds of supporters and people interested in his message. His campaign has been urging the president to provide him with Secret Service protection for months, and has sent multiple requests after various .
In October, a man was arrested after trespassing twice in one day at Kennedy鈥檚 Los Angeles home, and a month earlier, an armed man accused of impersonating a federal officer was outside a Kennedy campaign event.
Kennedy鈥檚 uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, were both assassinated.
鈥淭hank you, President Biden, for extending me Secret Service protection," Kennedy said in a statement. He also thanked his private security firm, Gavin de Becker & Associates, 鈥渇or keeping me safe for the past 15 months of my presidential campaign.鈥�
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Biden had directed the protection for Kennedy 鈥渂oth prior to and after the events of this past weekend."
The Secret Service is legally required to protect major party presidential and vice presidential candidates and their families 120 days out from a general election, but third-party candidates are treated on an as-needed basis. Kennedy, who has paid millions for private security, said the cost limited his ability to campaign.
The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged in its 2024 budget overview that recent requests for candidate protection were coming in earlier than in the past.
Threats to political candidates are common, but law enforcement officials have said that there has been an uptick in violent rhetoric since the weekend attack at the Trump rally. Mayorkas said both Biden and Trump are 鈥渃onstantly the subject of threats.鈥�
鈥淲e are in a heightened and very dynamic threat environment,鈥� he said.
Kennedy met with Trump Monday 鈥渢o discuss national unity,鈥� Kennedy spokesperson Stefanie Spear said. He also hopes to meet with Democratic leaders, she said, adding he is not dropping out of the race.
With a and a , Kennedy has the potential to do better than any third-party presidential candidate since Ross Perot in the 1990s. But he didn't participate in the first presidential debate on June 27. Both the Biden and Trump campaigns, who fear he could be a spoiler, and agreed to a schedule that essentially left out Kennedy.
Kennedy, who last year challenged Biden for the Democratic nomination before launching an independent bid, has argued that his relatively strong showing in a few national polls gives his candidacy heft. Polls during the 2016 presidential campaign regularly put libertarian Gary Johnson鈥檚 support in the high single or low double digits, but he ultimately received only about 3% of the vote nationwide.
Trump became the official Republican presidential nominee on Monday after receiving the votes of enough delegates at the Republican National Convention. He was not seriously injured in the shooting over the weekend in Pennsylvania. There is an independent review of the attack.
Mayorkas said Trump's protection has been enhanced based on the 鈥渆volving nature of the threats to the former president" and his shift from presumptive nominee to nominee.
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Associated Press writers Ali Swenson and Jonathan J. Cooper contributed to this report.
Zeke Miller And Colleen Long, The Associated Press
