Robert F Kennedy Jr Suspends Campaign, Trump Claims

 

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on stage at a rally in Arizona after withdrawing from the race and endorsing the former U.S. president.

Mr Kennedy, 70, a Democrat most of his life and a scion of the Kennedy dynasty, said the principles that had led him to leave the party had now forced him “to give my support to President Trump”.

At a news conference in Phoenix, Arizona on Friday, he said he would seek to have his name removed from ballots in 10 swing states.

Mr. Trump praised Mr. Kennedy as “phenomenal” and “brilliant” as he welcomed him to the stage at a rally later in Glendale.

Democratic rival Kamala Harris said she would try to “earn” the support of Kennedy voters.

As the November election approached, Mr. Kennedy’s polls have plummeted from double-digit highs, as funding and national coverage have dried up.

Son of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and grandson of President John F. Kennedy, he belongs to the most famous family in Democratic politics.

Before welcoming RFK Jr. to the stage on Friday, Trump promised that, if elected, he would release all remaining documents related to the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy.

Mr Kennedy’s decision to endorse a Republican for the White House outraged his relatives, who had previously condemned the use of his family’s last name in a Super Bowl commercial in February.

Kerry Kennedy, his sister, said his support for Trump was a “betrayal of the values ​​that our father and our family hold dear. It’s a sad end to a sad story.”

“This decision is distressing to me because of the hardship it causes my wife, my children and my friends,” Mr. Kennedy said on Friday.

“But I have the certainty that this is what I am meant to do. And this certainty gives me inner peace, even in the storms.”

He is married to Cheryl Hines, the star of the HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm. She wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that she deeply respected her husband’s decision to suspend his campaign. She has not commented on her support for Trump.

Mr Kennedy told reporters on Friday that Mr Trump’s insistence that he could end the war in Ukraine by negotiating with Russia “would alone justify my support for his campaign”.

“There are still many issues and approaches where we continue to have very serious differences. But we are aligned on other key issues.”

He said he would remove his name from 10 states where his presence would be a “spoiler” for Trump’s efforts. He has already withdrawn from the key states of Arizona and Pennsylvania.

But it is too late to withdraw from the swing states of Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, election officials told the AP news agency.

Mr. Kennedy said he launched his campaign in April 2023 “as a Democrat, the party of my father, my uncle… the champions of the Constitution.”

But he left because “it had become the party of war, of censorship, of corruption, of big pharmaceutical companies, of big tech companies, of big money.”

He attributed his decision to call off the campaign to “media scrutiny” and his former party’s efforts to undermine his run, adding: “In my heart, I no longer believe I have a realistic path to victory in the face of relentless and systematic censorship.”

Mr. Kennedy was polling around 14% to 16% at his peak. However, his ratings have fallen into the single digits since Ms. Harris became the Democratic nominee.

In his press conference he said he had offered to work with Mrs. Harris and her candidacy for the White House.

Democrats didn’t seem fazed by his announcement.

“Donald Trump is not getting the endorsement that will help build support, he is inheriting the baggage of a failed fringe candidate. Good riddance,” Democratic National Committee senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement.

Mr. Kennedy’s campaign became synonymous with the anti-vaccine movement, as he frequently praised his leadership of the organization Children’s Health Defense, formerly known as the World Mercury Project.

In recent weeks, Mr Kennedy has told how, in 2014, he pranked a dead bear cub that had been hit by a car in New York’s Central Park.
At the start of his campaign, it was revealed that more than a decade earlier he had suffered from a brain parasite that had caused him severe memory loss and mental fog.

His announcement ended days-long speculation that Mr. Kennedy had offered to endorse Mr. Trump to secure a role in his next administration.

Mr. Trump told CNN earlier this week that he would “certainly be open” to Mr. Kennedy playing a role, while Mr. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said he would be well-suited to “blowing up” a federal department.

Merrill Matthews, a resident fellow at the conservative Institute for Policy Innovation, told the BBC that Mr Kennedy’s decision highlighted the US two-party system and “how difficult it is to bring new ideas and fresh people into the process”. [BBC]

The post Robert F Kennedy Jr Suspends Campaign, Trump Claims appeared first on TheConclaveNg.