As usual you're misinformed and, in this case, you
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Posted On: 08/15/2023 6:35:36 PM
As usual you're misinformed and, in this case, you're the dim witted one.
Fact check: RFK Jr.’s misleading viral claim about Secret Service protection
By Daniel Dale, CNN
Published 8:12 PM EDT, Fri July 28, 2023
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/28/politics/fact-...index.html
Washington
CNN
—
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination against President Joe Biden, baselessly suggested Friday that the Biden administration is singling him out for rare treatment by denying him Secret Service protection.
Kennedy tweeted that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had decided that Secret Service protection for him is “not warranted at this time.” Kennedy said this denial came after nearly three months with no response to his campaign’s request for Secret Service protection and despite his campaign having submitted 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.”
CNN has no reason to dispute any of that; the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on Kennedy’s tweet, which had received more than 12 million views as of Friday afternoon. But Kennedy began the tweet as follows: “Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection. But not me.”
That is highly misleading.
Facts First:
Kennedy’s suggestion that he is being treated differently than every other presidential candidate since 1968 is baseless. In reality, the vast majority of candidates in modern presidential primaries never receive Secret Service protection because they are not deemed “major” candidates – and it would be nearly unprecedented for even a major candidate to receive protection this early in a campaign if they did not already have it on account of currently or previously serving in the White House.
A CNN review of presidential campaigns dating back to 1980 found that only then-Senator Barack Obama, who faced unique threats as a Black man with a realistic chance to become president, was granted Secret Service protection as early in a campaign as Kennedy is seeking it.
The criteria include being the formal or de facto nominee of a major party
(Kennedy is a distant longshot to beat Biden for the Democratic nomination); the candidate polling at 15% or higher for 30 consecutive days in the RealClearPolitics average or a similar system (Kennedy was above 15% in the RealClearPolitics average in May and much of June but has been below 15% every day since June 22 and was at 13.7% on Friday – about 50 points behind Biden); the Secret Service having conducted an assessment of threats to harm the candidate (it is not clear what specific threats Kennedy has faced or whether a Secret Service assessment has occurred); and operating a national campaign with such features as a national campaign “apparatus,” regular appearances in multiple states, and publishing ads of some kind (it is not clear how big Kennedy’s campaign apparatus is; he has made appearances in various states; the tracking firm AdImpact told CNN Friday that it has not yet seen any spending from Kennedy’s campaign on ads for television, radio, Facebook or Google, though it is possible he has published some other kind of ad).
Fact check: RFK Jr.’s misleading viral claim about Secret Service protection
By Daniel Dale, CNN
Published 8:12 PM EDT, Fri July 28, 2023
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/28/politics/fact-...index.html
Washington
CNN
—
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination against President Joe Biden, baselessly suggested Friday that the Biden administration is singling him out for rare treatment by denying him Secret Service protection.
Kennedy tweeted that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had decided that Secret Service protection for him is “not warranted at this time.” Kennedy said this denial came after nearly three months with no response to his campaign’s request for Secret Service protection and despite his campaign having submitted 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.”
CNN has no reason to dispute any of that; the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on Kennedy’s tweet, which had received more than 12 million views as of Friday afternoon. But Kennedy began the tweet as follows: “Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection. But not me.”
That is highly misleading.
Facts First:
Kennedy’s suggestion that he is being treated differently than every other presidential candidate since 1968 is baseless. In reality, the vast majority of candidates in modern presidential primaries never receive Secret Service protection because they are not deemed “major” candidates – and it would be nearly unprecedented for even a major candidate to receive protection this early in a campaign if they did not already have it on account of currently or previously serving in the White House.
A CNN review of presidential campaigns dating back to 1980 found that only then-Senator Barack Obama, who faced unique threats as a Black man with a realistic chance to become president, was granted Secret Service protection as early in a campaign as Kennedy is seeking it.
The criteria include being the formal or de facto nominee of a major party
(Kennedy is a distant longshot to beat Biden for the Democratic nomination); the candidate polling at 15% or higher for 30 consecutive days in the RealClearPolitics average or a similar system (Kennedy was above 15% in the RealClearPolitics average in May and much of June but has been below 15% every day since June 22 and was at 13.7% on Friday – about 50 points behind Biden); the Secret Service having conducted an assessment of threats to harm the candidate (it is not clear what specific threats Kennedy has faced or whether a Secret Service assessment has occurred); and operating a national campaign with such features as a national campaign “apparatus,” regular appearances in multiple states, and publishing ads of some kind (it is not clear how big Kennedy’s campaign apparatus is; he has made appearances in various states; the tracking firm AdImpact told CNN Friday that it has not yet seen any spending from Kennedy’s campaign on ads for television, radio, Facebook or Google, though it is possible he has published some other kind of ad).
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