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If you have been following the work of WhoWhatWhy Editor-in-Chief Russ Baker, you know that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not a man of science. However, you’d have thought that he could at least read a calendar (or polls). Apparently not.
Earlier this week, he took to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter to air a grievance. Specifically, RFK Jr. complained that he has not been given a Secret Service detail.
“Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection,” he tweeted. “But not me.”
Perhaps the entire point of that tweet was to remind people that he is the son of the beloved Robert F. Kennedy, who was gunned down while campaigning for the presidency. In that case, mission accomplished.
However, if he were serious about the request, then it is more than baffling.
While it is true that the Secret Service offers protection to presidential candidates, it is ridiculous for RFK Jr. to believe that he qualifies at this time.
Here is the thing: In addition to the serious and semi-serious candidates whom you may be aware of if you closely follow politics, there are also dozens of regular citizens, crackpots, and weirdos running for president each cycle.
Contrary to what RFK Jr. seems to think, the Secret Service does not provide protection to all of these “candidates for president.”
Because, let’s face it, Susan Buchser–Lochocki, who is probably a lovely, dedicated person, does not need a couple of burly dudes in suits and sunglasses to follow her around speaking into microphones and saying things like: “Soccer Mom is on the move.”
Therefore, the Secret Service only protects certain candidates. And, to preempt inquiries from whiners and/or grandstanders like RFK Jr., the agency conveniently posted the rules of eligibility on its website.
If he had bothered to check, Kennedy would have learned that the Secret Service protects “major presidential and vice presidential candidates and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election.”
And, since the 2024 presidential election is not held in the fall of 2023, RFK Jr., even if he were a “major” candidate, would not yet get protection.
Granted, one can certainly quibble over the definition of “major.” Do you need to have any chance of winning or just a famous name to qualify? If it’s the latter, RFK, Jr. should be ok. If it’s the former, however, then he’ll never be a major candidate. At least not as long as he runs as a Democrat.
What we cannot quibble about is the definition of 120 days. In every case, that means, well, 120 days. And it stands to reason that four months out from the general election of next year, he will have been mathematically eliminated from amassing enough delegates to win.
It should be noted that there have been a few instances in which candidates received or were offered protection earlier. In those cases, the Secretary of Homeland Security first had to make the determination that this step was warranted. The most famous example was Barack Obama, but he was a black guy with a shot at winning the presidency, so you do the math as to how many death threats he probably received.
Based on his tweet, Kennedy had sought such an exemption not long after he filed his candidacy on April 5. However, his 67-page report and “several follow-ups” did not sway the secretary and, predictably, the request was denied.
But at least he gets to rail about it on Twitter.
