PHOENIX — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed former President Donald Trump Friday afternoon throughout a prolonged speech placing to relaxation his tumultuous impartial presidential marketing campaign.
Kennedy’s marketing campaign first confirmed the endorsement in a courtroom submitting in Pennsylvania earlier than he took the stage for the speech in battleground Arizona. Trump has his personal occasion in close by Glendale later Friday, the place Kennedy will converse, in line with three sources acquainted with the planning — the fruits of weeks of talks.
Kennedy, who gained prominence as an environmental lawyer after which as a number one anti-vaccine advocate, opened his remarks Friday blasting the Democratic Social gathering for “abandon[ing] democracy,” lambasting his “naysayers” for not believing his marketing campaign might be profitable, and accusing each the media and Democrats of a conspiracy that saved him from being aggressive. Then, Kennedy made it official.
“Many months ago I promised the American people I would withdraw from the race if I became a spoiler. … In my heart, I no longer believe I have a realistic path to electoral victory,” he mentioned.
Framing each Trump and himself as victims of the “continual legal warfare” by Democrats, Kennedy criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for not having received “a single delegate” throughout her 2020 race and accused her of ignoring the press and scuttling a coverage platform for what he referred to as a marketing campaign targeted completely on opposing Trump. And he in contrast Biden’s, after which Harris’, grip on the Democratic Social gathering to the autocracy of Russia underneath President Vladimir Putin.
Against this, Kennedy made clear that in Trump, he sees a companion — and a fellow sufferer.
“These are the principled causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump. The causes were: Free speech, the war in Ukraine, and the war on our children,” he mentioned.
“One of the two candidates has adopted these issues as his own to the point where he has asked to enlist me in his administration. I’m speaking, of course, of Donald Trump.”
In a press release, Democratic Nationwide Committee senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill mentioned, “Donald Trump isn’t earning an endorsement that’s going to help build support, he’s inheriting the baggage of a failed fringe candidate. Good riddance.”
Contained in the negotiations
Kennedy’s choice to again Trump comes after weeks of back-channel courtship. One particular person acquainted with the discussions mentioned that Donald Trump Jr. had been seeking to engineer a Kennedy endorsement of his father for six months, with one other supply noting that Trump Jr. had lengthy felt that Kennedy’s presence within the race was damage the GOP marketing campaign.
For a time, polling was unclear about that query. Nevertheless it modified dramatically after Harris took over because the Democratic presidential candidate and the polling panorama shifted. It is a actuality the Trump marketing campaign acknowledged in a memo from pollster Tony Fabrizo despatched to reporters after Kennedy’s announcement, which argues its polling exhibits that Kennedy’s vote “breaks for President Trump” in each key state.
Nonetheless, the preliminary conservations began earlier, a few week earlier than the Republican conference, with right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson connecting Trump Jr. with Kennedy.
From there, Trump Jr. and donor Omeed Malik served as go-betweens to assist shut the deal. The 2 sources acquainted with the talks mentioned that Kennedy is anticipated to play a job on the marketing campaign path going ahead.
In an interview, Malik mentioned Kennedy has not been promised a Cupboard place in change for his endorsement, although that is one thing Kennedy working mate Nicole Shanahan advised when talking on a podcast earlier this week. (Shanahan didn’t seem at Friday’s occasion.)
However, Malik mentioned, “I believe each President Trump and JD Vance have mentioned as a lot within the final 24 hours, that ought to they achieve success, there are many roles, and I believe the world of well being is one,” the place Kennedy might serve.
“I don’t see any downside whatsoever” to Kennedy supporting Trump, Malik mentioned, including, “These types of events have the potential to really change everything.”
At his speech on Friday, Kennedy went onto element about talking to and assembly with Trump and his advisers, when he mentioned he found “we are aligned on many key issues.”
And he implied he is been provided a say in a possible future Trump administration.
“If President Trump is elected and honors his word, the vast burden of chronic disease that now demoralizes and bankrupts the country will disappear,” Kennedy mentioned.
“President Trump has told he wants this to be his legacy,” Kennedy continued. “I’m choosing to believe that this time he will follow through. His son, his biggest donors and his closest friends all support this objective.”
And he admitted that aligning with Trump will “a difficult sacrifice for my wife and children but worthwhile if there’s even a small chance of saving these kids.”
However he harassed that this alliance with Trump “will allow us to disagree publicly and privately,” whereas nonetheless working collectively on their shared objectives.
Criticizing companies just like the FDA, Kennedy added that with “Trump’s backing,” they’ll “staff these agencies with honest scientists and doctors.”
As to his electoral future, Kennedy mentioned he would solely work to take away his identify from ballots in swing states as a result of he needed to provide his to provide his supporters in “red states” and “blue states” an opportunity to vote for him with out “harming or helping.”
And he mentioned that by remaining on the poll, he might technically be eligible to imagine the presidency in 2025 if no candidate wins a majority of the Electoral School, a digital impossibility as a result of it will require him to win Electoral School votes.
A protracted and tough marketing campaign
Kennedy’s bid for the presidency stumbled amid intense opposition from Democrats, controversies stoked by the candidate himself, and difficulties overcoming the numerous hurdles going through independents attempting to get on ballots throughout the nation.
The choice to finish his marketing campaign had been anticipated, after Kennedy’s working mate started brazenly musing this week about whether or not he would drop out to endorse former President Donald Trump. Even earlier than then, his marketing campaign had stopped placing by itself occasions and began partaking in uncommon public diplomacy with Trump, an opponent Kennedy had harshly criticized earlier within the marketing campaign.
Kennedy’s impending drop-out marks the top of one of many extra quixotic presidential campaigns in trendy historical past, one that originally gained sufficient traction to ship Democrats right into a panic about whether or not his bid might jeopardize their path to victory in 2024. Initially, Kennedy sought the Democratic presidential nomination, however he determined in October 2023 to run as an impartial bid as a substitute.
His assist waned, because it usually does for candidates charting a collision course with the nation’s two-party system — although this time, it got here amid a summer time filled with campaign-shaking occasions.
The Democratic Social gathering’s choice to modify up its presidential ticket has prompted a decline within the share of voters saying they’d again third-party candidates, leaving Kennedy largely pulling from Trump. Even earlier than that, Kennedy and his marketing campaign struggled via a months-long, tough stretch that raised questions on his viability.
Kennedy’s public ballot numbers have been dropping, and neither the candidate nor his working mate have spent a lot time on the path in latest weeks. As an alternative, the candidate was accumulating unfavorable headlines — an allegation that he groped a former famliy babysitter (to which he responded to by declaring, “I’m not a church boy“); a revelation that he used a useless bear he discovered on a roadside to stage a faux bicycle accident in New York’s Central Park; and a declare by Kennedy that docs discovered a parasite in his mind greater than a decade in the past, amongst different issues.
Unbiased presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes an announcement on the way forward for his marketing campaign in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. August 23, 2024.
Thomas Machowicz | Reuters
He struggled to reconcile his profession as an anti-vaccine activist with a must win over a broad citizens. Kennedy repeatedly courted the anti-vaccine influencers and organizations that had been integral to his profession, resulting in extreme criticism from Democrats and different teams pointing to his feedback and associations to border him as a radical. On Thursday, after his marketing campaign introduced his intentions to provide a Friday replace on the state of the race, he tweeted out an 11-minute video he mentioned was an try and “set the record straight by explaining my exact posture, point-by-point, one what is probably the most controversial issue of my campaign,” his stance on vaccines. Simply 24 hours later, he left the race.
Kennedy additionally flip-flopped on abortion coverage all through his marketing campaign: In August 2023, whereas nonetheless working as a Democrat, he informed NBC Information that he’d assist signing a nationwide abortion ban after the primary three months of being pregnant, earlier than his marketing campaign rapidly walked again the feedback. Then this Could, Kennedy mentioned in a podcast episode that he would assist “full-term abortions,” gorgeous his working mate. Days later, Kennedy walked again these feedback, too.
And at an organizational degree, Kennedy’s camp struggled at occasions underneath the load of getting to fund a large poll entry program to get on ballots in sufficient states to win the presidency. By August, solely a handful of states had licensed Kennedy’s place on the poll, and he has continued to face authorized challenges, together with a courtroom choice in addition him from the poll in New York.
Regardless that that poll entry program fell brief, it wasn’t low cost. The Kennedy marketing campaign spent greater than $8 million on marketing campaign consulting from Accelevate 2020 LLC, a bunch that additionally does ballot-access work.
Total, the marketing campaign successfully raised what it spent — it amassed $57.6 million and spent nearly $54 million via July. However that fundraising contains $15 million in direct contributions from Kennedy’s vice presidential candidate, Shanahan, who spent the week stoking the hypothesis the marketing campaign was about to finish. (The marketing campaign additionally refunded her greater than $900,000 final month.)
“There’s two options that we’re looking at, and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency, because we draw votes from Trump or we draw somehow more votes from Trump,” she mentioned on a podcast interview launched on Monday.
“Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump. And, you know, we walk away from that and we explain to our base why we’re making this decision,” Shanahan continued.
On Friday, Shanahan posted on social media, writing: “I’m not a Kamala Democrat. I’m not a Trump Republican [.] I’m an INDEPENDENT American who is endorsing ideas, not a person or a party. I will continue working to give a voice to the voiceless and bring power back to the people.”
There have been different monetary drains on the marketing campaign, too, together with the thousands and thousands Kennedy spent on safety as he repeatedly referred to as on the federal authorities to supply him with Secret Service safety, evoking the political assassinations of his well-known father and uncle.
Federal marketing campaign finance information present Kennedy’s marketing campaign spent greater than $3 million on safety companies offered by Gavin de Becker, a distinguished safety advisor defending celebrities who can be a Kennedy supporter and good friend. The marketing campaign can be carrying a further $3 million in debt to de Becker’s firm.
The marketing campaign obtained Secret Service safety after the assassination try on Trump in July.
Katherine Koretski reported from Phoenix; and Ben Kamisar from Washington, D.C.
