(NewsNation) — Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is getting Secret Service protection following an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Director of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters at a press briefing Monday that Biden had directed him to work with Secret Service to get Kennedy that security.
Earlier in the day, Trump had called for Kennedy to get Secret Service protection on social media.
“Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!” Trump posted Monday on Truth Social.
In response, Kennedy said on X; “It is a hopeful sign for our country when a political opponent calls for one’s protection. Maybe our country can unite after all.”
Kennedy, who is running for president against Trump and President Joe Biden, said last year his request for Secret Service had previously been denied.
“Thank you to President Biden for granting me Secret Service protection,” Kennedy posted on X following Mayorkas’ announcement. “And I am so grateful to Gavin de Becker & Associates for keeping me safe for the last 15 months of my Presidential campaign.”
Kennedy joined “NewsNation Prime” just hours after gunshots forced Trump to evacuate the stage at a fairground in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, killing one rally attendee.
On NewsNation, Kennedy called for peace, saying that Saturday’s incident was the “product of so much vitriol and so much anger.”
Early Sunday morning, the FBI said the attempted assassin was Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, some 60 miles from the location of the rally.
The assassination attempt hits close to home for Kennedy, who is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968, and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963.
It’s a rare occurrence. The last assassination attempt on a president was in 1981 when a gunman shot then-President Ronald Reagan.
“I understand the implications that this has for our country probably as well as anybody does. … I’m sure (his family is) terrified for his safety,” Kennedy said.
NewsNation’s Anna Kutz contributed to this report.
