Tipsheet
Premium

Will RFK Jr. Mount a Third Party Run?

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  September 20, 2023 11:45 AM

Although he's still currently running in the Democratic presidential primary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has explored the options of running as a third party candidate in 2024. Kennedy has noteworthy support in the polls, but President Joe Biden still has a commanding lead. Further, although there is significant chatter that Biden might not be the nominee, due to issues such as mental capabilities, it's still more likely that he will be, at least at this time. After how Kennedy has been treated by the administration, though, it wouldn't be all that surprising if he mounted a third party run.

Democrats are not quite fans. Let's not forget how he was maligned at a July 20 hearing by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, with Democratic members even calling for him to be disinvited. Ironically, the hearing was on censorship, specifically to "examine the federal government's role in censoring Americans, the Missouri v. Biden case, and Big Tech's collusion with out-of-control government agencies to silence speech." 

The Biden administration has also looked to censor him as we now know thanks to the Facebook Files that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who chairs both that select subcommittee and the House Judiciary Committee which it falls under, has released. 

While some Democrats have wisened up to how having a different nominee and an actual primary would help their party, that doesn't mean they want RFK Jr. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is perhaps the most vocal Democrat calling for as much. 

During an appearance on "Face the Nation" last month, Phillips was asked directly by host Major Garett about RFK Jr., but responded, "I don't believe him to be a Democrat," adding that he is "not the one I'm looking for" when asked if Kennedy is "an adequate competitor."

Recommended

Some Democrats Are Admitting They Lied Before The Election Derek Hunter
MSNBC Guest Who Went After Pete Hegseth Facing Backlash From All Sides Rebecca Downs

Where RFK Jr. has been treated the worst, though, is with regards to being refused Secret Service protection, despite his campaign requesting it multiple times. Kennedy's own father was assassinated in 1968 while running for president. Over the weekend, as Leah covered, an armed man impersonating a U.S. Marshal was arrested at one of the candidate's events in Los Angeles. The man, according to a post from Kennedy, "identified himself as a member of my security detail," but was fortunately detained by private security until the LAPD arrived to make an arrest.

"I'm the first presidential candidate in history to whom the White House has denied a request for protection," the post also read in part.

Campaign manager Dennis Kucinich continues to ask the Biden administration to grant "the Secret Service protection that his circumstances so obviously warrant," as laid out in an open letter on Monday. 

"It is astonishing that under such circumstances, you would deny Secret Service coverage to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has polled more than 20% in the first five primary states, and whose net favorability rating exceeds both yours and Donald Trump's," Kucinich's letter read in part. 

In refusing the campaign's request in July, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had said, "I have determined that Secret Service protection for Robert F Kennedy Jr is not warranted at this time." 

Candidates are not merely granted protection based on how they are performing in the polls, but due to threat assessment as well. In the Monday episode of "The Verdict," a podcast he co-hosts with Ben Ferguson, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) discussed the situation from the perspective of a major candidate who has run for president but consciously chose to not ask for it when running in 2016. He had also posted about the incident. As Cruz explained it, that decision was made due to how the Secret Service slows down events, though he did use his own private security. 

One candidate who did get such protection "relatively early on" in 2016 included Dr. Ben Carson, despite not winning a single state. "Ben Carson was given Secret Service protection because the level of death threats that were directed at him was deemed sufficient that it merited Secret Service protection," Cruz explained. "I don't know exactly how many death threats we're talking about. But the Department of Homeland Security made the determination given this threat level, given the risk that some lunatic would try to kill an African American Republican running for president, we're gonna provide Secret Service protection."

The senator explained something about how the process works:

Under law, quote, 'major candidates' are entitled to Secret Service protection. Is Mayorkas’ decision not to grant protection political? Surely, this administration wouldn’t put a man's life at risk, rather than concede that RFK Jr. is a major candidate. The Trump DHS gave Biden protection in March of 2020 after a security incident. Mayorkas should follow that precedent and expeditiously approve protection for RFK Jr. Now, the way it works under the law is that a candidate for president is entitled to Secret Service protection if they are a quote, 'major candidate.' And being a major candidate, there are a series of criteria that are used to ascertain a major candidate, including poll numbers. It is the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security that makes that determination. They do so in consultation with a bipartisan advisory committee that includes both Republicans and Democrats. At the easy level, the major party nominees both are entitled to coverage and they both get it. But historically, they get it earlier than becoming the nominees.

For RFK Jr. to get Secret Service protection is a "no brainer," according to Cruz, given not only last weekend's events but also how his father was assassinated while running for president and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated while in office. 

Cruz made clear he is not voting for RFK Jr., but nevertheless stressed the importance of how providing him Secret Service protection is "the right thing to do."

"And whether you're a Democrat or Republican, this ought to be an easy choice. And the Biden White House ought to get their political heads out of their rear ends and do the right thing. Listen, they feel confident they can beat RFK Jr. Fine if they're confident, then do the right thing and ensure that he's got Secret Service protection. So, we don't have a national tragedy on our hands," Cruz pointed out. 

Cruz did offer why it is he thinks Mayorkas has not granted such protections, though, in that "it legitimizes him" as a major candidate, and that such a refusal "is purely political." As Cruz explained it, though, "the approach of the Biden White House is 'RFK who? We never heard of him. Nope, nope. Nobody running. Nobody in the Democrat primary, doesn't exist. This is a coronation, Joe's down in the basement.'"

One chilling scenario that Cruz invited listeners to think of was "imagine your reaction, if you turned on the TV tomorrow and saw that RFK Jr., like his father, was murdered while being a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. Imagine the horror. How do you justify the Biden administration saying, 'Nope, politics matters more to us. So good luck to you. Hope nothing happens.'"

An indication that he'll run as a third party candidate may have come from RFK Jr. himself, in an open letter to the DNC from last Wednesday. Towards the end, RFK Jr. called to mind a warning President George Washington issued about parties:

Family to family, I urge you to reflect, privately and in consultation with your higher power, on what legacy you wish to leave. Will it be a fearful, desperate grasping for power at all costs? Or will it be the confident and graceful letting go that marks those who truly believe in democracy? And if, in those reflections, you find yourself seeking sage counsel, I offer the parting words of George Washington — a leader whose voluntary handover of power set a precedent that echoes to this day.

“Parties,” Washington warned, “become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

I write to you now in the hope that you hold the engine of democracy as sacred as I do. I pray that, at a time of public discontent, you cede more power to the public, not less, and thereby do right by yourselves, by the American people, and by the ideal of self-determination that inaugurated our great nation.

That open letter prompted Douglas MacKinnon to write an op-ed for The Hill published on Saturday, wondering "Did RFK Jr. hint the ‘rigged’ DNC may force him to run third party?" In it, MacKinnon likened RFK Jr. to the titular character in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and referred to him as "[t]oday's populist." 

"It is clear that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a Democrat and wants to run as one in the Democratic primaries. He has stressed time and again that the Democratic Party he once knew was all about helping the disenfranchised and those with the least among us," MacKinnon also offered, before going on to point out "But if the system is 'rigged' and he is shut out of the Democratic primaries, does his quest become a lost cause?" 

Both the open letter and MacKinnon's op-ed were featured by RealClearPolitics earlier this week.