Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s wife, Cheryl Hines, slammed President Joe Biden for not offering them Secret Service protection after an intruder broke into their home in Los Angeles twice in one day.
The actress and comedian, 58, said on TMZ Live Friday that ‘it feels like a political strategy’ to not offer Secret Service to her husband, who is running as an Independent candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
She said the decision suggests that the administration is not acknowledging Kennedy’s candidacy despite her ‘respect for President Biden and the administration.’
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Kennedy agreed with his wife that the decision is a ‘political’ move.
‘[The trespasser] has written me 435 emails in a three-month period, including one last week, which was about me getting a bullet in my brain,’ he said.
Jonathan Macht, who broke into Kennedy’s house Wednesday, was listed in a Secret Service risk assessment in June as part of the candidate’s request for protection, Fox reported.
The Secret Service determined Kennedy was ‘at an elevated risk’ months ago, but the homeland security has denied his requests for the protection twice, Kennedy said.
Kennedy is polling at 19 percent in the most recent poll, and the family has been receiving death threats and experiencing home invasions for the past few months.
Cheryl Hines (pictured), 58, said ‘it’s a political strategy’ to not offer Secret Service protection to her husband who is running for the 2024 presidential election
Hines said the decision suggests that the administration is not acknowledging Kennedy’s candidacy
An intruder was twice arrested for attempting to break into the couple’s LA home Wednesday
Candidates from a major party polling above 15 percent and independent candidates polling above 20 percent are eligible for Secret Service protection, according to Title 18 U.S.C. 3056(a)(7).
The late Sen. Ted Kennedy, the candidate’s uncle, was given Secret Service protection 441 days before the 1980 presidential election, in which he challenged incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter.
Former President Barack Obama was afforded Secret Service protection 551 days before the 2008 election due to racist threats when he was running in the Democratic primary.
Hines said she noticed a strange man in the yard being apprehended by security while she was on Instagram Live at the family’s Brentwood estate at around 9:30 am.
‘The harrowing event’ underscored the need for her husband to have Secret Service protection, Hines said, which ‘has been rejected twice’ by President Biden’s Homeland Security.
‘If they do give Bobby protection, then they are acknowledging that he’s running as a political candidate,’ she said.
Macht was arrested after climbing a fence to get access to the Brentwood property – reaching the second floor of the home – before being detained by Kennedy’s private security Wednesday.
After being released from police custody, the man, again tried to access Kennedy’s property in a bid to see and speak with the candidate.
He was then arrested a second time for violating the court order and trespassing.
Kennedy wrote on X (formerly Twitter): ‘Yesterday an intruder climbed the fence at my home and was arrested.’
‘After being released from police custody later in the day, he immediately returned to my home and was arrested again,’ the post continues.
Kennedy and Hines have made two formal requests for Secret Service protection, but Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has refused to approve both.
‘It’s disappointing to say the very least that the administration is not giving Bobby protection,’ Hines said in the interview.
‘They know what’s happening and they know what has been happening,’ the actress added. ‘I can’t believe that they are not responding.’
Hines said ‘it takes a lot of efforts’ to protect the candidate, but ‘it’s exactly what the Secret Service should be doing.’
Kennedy and Hines have made two formal requests for Secret Service protection, butneither was approved
Kennedy’s campaign petitioned again Wednesday for Secret Service protection
An image included in a letter Thursday to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking for Kennedy to receive Secret Service protection that shows the guns that Adrian Paul Aispuro brought to a Kennedy campaign event in September
The Kennedy campaign also shared the guns that were found when law enforcement searched the home of Aispuro, who was impersonating a police officer at the September Kennedy campaign event
The same day Kennedy wrote on X, slamming President Biden: ‘It’s not right for the President to provide protection to his family and political favorites while denying it to political rivals.’
Kennedy’s campaign petitioned again Wednesday.
His father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated by a gunman when he was running for president in 1968.
Meanwhile, his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated during his first term in the White House in 1963.
The 2024 campaign had called for Secret Service protection in September after a man was arrested after showing up to a Kennedy campaign event armed with two pistols, impersonating a police officer.
Again, Kennedy’s private security detail detained the man – 44-year-old Adrian Paul Aispuro.
‘Although it is a well-known historical fact, apparently, in your case, it bears repeating,’ Kennedy’s campaign manager, former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, said at the time.
‘Mr. Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. Mr. Kennedy’s father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated while a presidential candidate.’