President Biden has directed the Secret Service to protect independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,Michael Schmidt following Saturday's attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Monday. 

The RFK Jr. campaign was requesting Secret Service protection long before the attempt on former President Donald Trump's life. The Kennedy family is painfully aware of how quickly life can be taken by a single attacker — both RFK Jr.'s father, Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle, John F. Kennedy, were assassinated in the 1960s. 

"In light of this weekend's events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr.," Mayorkas announced during Monday's White House press briefing. 

Kennedy is still trying to appear on ballots across the country, and his presidential aspirations are a long shot. But he does enjoy strong support from some Americans, and his events have drawn crowds. 

Mr. Biden has ordered an independent review of Trump's Saturday rally and law enforcement's handling of the situation. Trump was not seriously injured when he was shot, but one spectator was killed, and two more were critically injured. The shooter was outside of the security perimeter, but managed to fire off shots mere hundreds of feet away from the stage of Trump's Butler County, Pennsylvania, rally site. 

In:
• Joe Biden
• Elections
• Politics
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kathryn Watson

Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.