Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated he was “suspending” his unbiased presidential bid and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump on Friday, a day after Kennedy withdrew from the poll in Arizona.
Kennedy was anticipated to announce he was withdrawing from the race at a speech in Phoenix on Friday afternoon, however a Pennsylvania court filing earlier within the day confirmed he would withdraw from that state’s poll and endorse Trump.
In a little bit of a twist, Kennedy stated he was not “terminating” his marketing campaign, solely “suspending” it, and inspired his supporters who aren’t in battleground states to nonetheless vote for him.
In 10 battleground states, nonetheless, together with Arizona and Pennsylvania, he’s eradicating his identify from the poll and urged voters to not vote for him, fearing he would play the function of a spoiler candidate by siphoning votes away from Trump.
“In an sincere system, I consider I’d have gained the election,” Kennedy informed the gang. “In a system with open debates, with truthful primaries … and with a really unbiased media untainted by authorities propaganda and censorship, the whole lot could be completely different.”
Kennedy thanked the marketing campaign’s volunteers for serving to the ticket make the poll on a state-by-state foundation, navigating an “insurmountable tangle of arbitrary guidelines for gathering signatures.”
Then, veering into conspiracy, Kennedy launched into an extended assault accusing the Democratic Social gathering of colluding with the media to undertake a ”systemic assault on democracy.”
Kennedy additionally returned to acquainted themes from his marketing campaign, criticizing ultra-processed meals and poisonous chemical substances for inflicting all kinds of bodily and psychological well being points, from diabetes to numerous cancers to consideration deficit dysfunction.
“We’re mass-poisoning all of our kids and adults,” Kennedy stated.
Kennedy’s endorsement was instantly disavowed by his prolonged household, who referred to as it “a betrayal” and endorsed the Democratic ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“We consider in Harris and Walz,” Kennedy’s siblings said in a statement. “Our brother Bobby’s resolution to endorse Trump at this time is a betrayal of the values that our father and our household maintain most expensive. It’s a unhappy ending to a tragic story.”
Rumors in regards to the marketing campaign had swirled since Tuesday, when RFK Jr.’s working mate, Nicole Shanahan, stated on a podcast that the 2 had been exploring their choices for the race.
“One is staying in, forming that new celebration however we run the danger of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency as a result of we draw votes from Trump or we draw by some means extra votes from Trump,” Shanahan informed Tom Bilyeu, the host of “Affect Concept.”
“Or we stroll away proper now and be part of forces with Donald Trump, and we stroll away from that, and we clarify to our base why we’re making this resolution,” she continued.
The Washington Publish beforehand reported that Kennedy requested for a high-level function within the Trump administration in trade for his endorsement. Trump signaled an openness to the chance in a CNN interview earlier this week.
Kennedy tried to barter the same settlement with Harris however the vice chairman’s staff confirmed no curiosity, he told The New York Times.
The long-shot candidate noticed nationwide polling numbers as high as 16% this spring, although they’ve fallen below 5% in latest months because the marketing campaign failed to seek out buy.
Kennedy’s marketing campaign wasn’t helped by quite a few studies of previous conduct that led him to reply to accusations of sexual assault from the household’s former nanny, deny a Self-importance Truthful story about having eaten a canine (he says it was a goat), breathe life into 9/11 conspiracy theories, come clean with having dumped a useless bear cub in Central Park, and ensure a parasitic worm ate a portion of his mind.
