Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just revealed that the administration of President Joe Biden has denied his request for Secret Service protection. 

Kennedy made the revelation in a lengthy Twitter statement.

Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection. But not me.

Typical turnaround time for pro forma protection requests from presidential candidates is 14-days. After 88-days of no response and after several…

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 28, 2023

Background

The background here is that Kennedy, a Democrat, has emerged as one of the leading 2024 presidential candidates not named Biden or Trump. To be clear, both Biden and former President Donald Trump are dominating their respective parties in primary polls. On the Democratic side, Biden leads Kennedy, on average, by a staggering 49.5 percentage points.

But, the point is that Kennedy has clearly emerged as Biden's top Democratic challenger. And, no one can deny that Kennedy is gaining some serious momentum.

With this momentum, it is very possible that, even if Kennedy does not stand a chance of winning the 2024 election, he could have a serious impact on it - perhaps even as a third-party candidate.

Kennedy's request

It is for his 2024 presidential campaign that Kennedy asked the Biden administration for Secret Service protection.

For those who may be unaware, the Secret Service's website states that "by law, the Secret Service is authorized to protect . . . major presidential and vice presidential candidates, and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election."

There is no question that, at this point, Kennedy is a major presidential candidate. Yet, it appears that he has been denied Secret Service protection by the administration of his Democratic rival - Biden.

Request denied

Kennedy, in his Twitter message, wrote, "Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection. But not me."

Kennedy goes on to write, "Typical turnaround time for pro forma protection requests from presidential candidates is 14 days. After 88 days of no response and after several follow-ups by our campaign, the Biden Administration just denied our request."

Kennedy here included a message that he received from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas: It read, "I have determined that Secret Service protection for Robert F Kennedy Jr is not warranted at this time."

Kennedy, lastly, reveals that his request "included a 67-page report from the world's leading protection firm, detailing unique and well-established security and safety risks aside from commonplace death threats."

The Biden administration, at the time of this writing, has not responded publicly to this situation.