The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is renewing its demand for him to receive Secret Service protection following the FBI’s killing of a Utah man who allegedly threatened President Biden, as well as the Wednesday assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador.
‘The killing of Mr. [Fernando] Villavicencio proves how volatile the political climate has become,’ campaign manager Dennis Kucinich said in a statement. ‘Yesterday the FBI confronted a man who had threatened President Biden, an incident that led to the man being shot dead by government agents.’
‘Mr. Kennedy has met all criteria for protection. The only conceivable reason he is being denied is because of a conscious decision by the White House to deny him security and damn the consequences,’ he added.
Craig Deleeuw Robertson, a 74-year-old woodworker, was shot and killed during an FBI raid in Provo, Utah, on Wednesday after allegedly making death threats against Biden and other high-profile Democrats.
‘I hear Biden is coming to Utah. Digging out my old ghille suit and cleaning the dust off the m24 sniper rifle. welcom, buffoon-in-chief!’ Robertson wrote in a Facebook post just days before Biden visited the state.
A law enforcement source told Fox News Digital that Robertson was holding a weapon. After a standoff, agents opened fire, killing him around 6:14 a.m., Fox News reported Wednesday.
On the same day, Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed in an armed attack at a campaign rally in the capital, Quito, according to the country’s president, Guillermo Lasso, and local media reports.
According to the local reports, Villavicencio, a former lawmaker who had been polling at 7.5%, was shot while leaving the event. Ecuador’s attorney general’s office later reported that one suspect died in custody from wounds sustained in a firefight after the assassination, and police detained six other people.
According to Kennedy’s campaign, the candidate first filed for Secret Service protection ‘months ago,’ but was denied by the Biden administration last month.
Kennedy noted the denial on social media, claiming it went against the norms of providing candidates Secret Service protection and citing a 67-page report from ‘the world’s leading protection firm’ that he said detailed ‘unique and well established security and safety risks aside from commonplace death threats’ and justified his need for protection.
Kennedy’s father, the late former Democratic New York senator and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and uncle, the late former President John F. Kennedy, were both assassinated in the 1960s.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz, Adam Sabes and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
Brandon Gillespie is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @brandon_cg.
