Bodyguard, bank, vaccine critic: RFK Jr.'s celebrity protector plays a key campaign role
Gavin de Becker's role goes far beyond Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s personal protection, illuminating the unusual mix of people drawn to RFK Jr.'s 2024 campaign.
In January, some of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s closest supporters gathered at the tony London Hotel in West Hollywood to celebrate his 70th birthday and raise money for a super PAC supporting his independent presidential campaign.
Even with a slew of famous names present, the evening’s emotional apex came from Gavin de Becker, bodyguard to the stars, who is simultaneously one of the candidate’s biggest donors and vendors and Kennedy’s personal friend and security guru.
“I don’t know if there was a dry face in the room after he spoke,” said Holly Baird, a Hollywood crisis communications consultant who was engagement director for Kennedy’s campaign at the time but left the campaign in May. “He put it really clear how he feels about Bobby and he put us all to task that he is here to protect Bobby and to support all of us.”
Personal protection is a sensitive issue for Kennedy, whose famous father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and uncle, President John F. Kennedy, were both killed by assassins’ bullets in the 1960s. Kennedy has faced his own threats, which de Becker has validated publicly. But de Becker’s role goes far beyond Kennedy’s physical protection — and his entrance into the 2024 presidential campaign illuminates the unusual mix of ideologies, personalities and origin stories drawn to Kennedy’s unusual bid for the White House.
Like many in Kennedy’s inner orbit and his broader base of support, de Becker shares his deep skepticism of the medical establishment and of vaccines, concerns that most medical experts call unfounded.In hours of public interviews reviewed by NBC News, de Becker, who largely declined to answer questions from NBC News about his life and role in the campaign, rails against the HPV vaccine, accuses the media and pharmaceutical companies of working together to stifle dissent and criticizes former U.S. infectious diseases chief Anthony Fauci.
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