Kennedy Jr., Robert F., suspends his campaign and endorses Trump.
Kennedy stated that the principles which initially caused him to leave the party now led him to express his support for Trump.
Independent White House candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined Republican nominee Donald Trump on stage at a rally in Arizona after withdrawing from the race and endorsing the former president.
Kennedy, 70, who was a Democrat for most of his life and is a member of the Kennedy family, explained that the principles which led him to leave the party are now driving him to support Trump.
In a press conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday, Kennedy announced that he would work to have his name removed from the ballot in ten key battleground states.
At a rally in Glendale, Trump praised Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as “phenomenal” and “brilliant” while introducing him on stage. In response, Democratic rival Kamala Harris stated her intention to “earn” the support of Kennedy’s voters.
As the November election approaches, Kennedy’s poll numbers have dropped from double digits due to reduced funding and national attention.
Kennedy, the son of US Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, comes from one of the most prominent families in Democratic politics.
Before introducing RFK Jr. on Friday, Trump vowed that, if elected, he would release all remaining documents related to President Kennedy’s 1963 assassination.
Mr. Kennedy’s choice to support a Republican candidate for the White House has angered his relatives, who had previously criticized his use of the family name in a Super Bowl ad earlier this year.
Kerry Kennedy, his sister, described his backing of Trump as a “betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear,” calling it “a sad ending to a sad story.”
Kennedy stated on Friday, “This decision is agonizing for me due to the challenges it poses for my wife, children, and friends. However, I am certain this is what I am meant to do, and that certainty provides me with inner peace, even in troubled times.”
His wife, Cheryl Hines, star of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” expressed deep respect for his decision to suspend his campaign on X (formerly Twitter) but did not comment on his endorsement of Trump.
On Friday, Mr. Kennedy told reporters that Trump’s promise to potentially end the war in Ukraine through negotiations with Russia was enough to justify his support for the campaign.
Kennedy acknowledged that there are still significant differences between his views and Trump’s but noted alignment on other important issues.
He also announced plans to withdraw his name from the ballot in ten states where his candidacy could act as a “spoiler” for Trump. He has already removed himself from the ballot in the key battleground states of Arizona and Pennsylvania.
However, election officials informed AP News that it is now too late for him to withdraw from the swing states of Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
Kennedy explained that he started his campaign in April 2023 as a Democrat, the party associated with his father and uncle and a defender of the Constitution. He left the party because he believed it had become “the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big money.”
He attributed his decision to suspend his campaign to “media control” and his former party’s efforts to undermine his bid, adding, “In my heart, I no longer believe I have a realistic path to victory amid relentless and systematic censorship.”
Mr. Kennedy’s poll numbers peaked at around 14% to 16% but have since fallen to single digits following Kamala Harris’s nomination as the Democratic candidate.
In his press conference, Kennedy mentioned that he had offered to collaborate with Harris on her presidential bid.
Democrats appeared untroubled by his endorsement of Trump. Mary Beth Cahill, a senior adviser for the Democratic National Committee, dismissed the endorsement as “baggage from a failed fringe candidate” and stated, “Good riddance.”
Kennedy’s campaign became closely associated with the anti-vaccine movement, largely due to his role in leading the Children’s Health Defense organization, previously known as the World Mercury Project.
In recent weeks, Mr. Kennedy shared a story about disposing of a dead bear cub hit by a car in New York’s Central Park in 2014 as a joke.
Earlier in his campaign, it was disclosed that he had suffered from a brain parasite over a decade ago, leading to severe memory loss and brain fog.
His endorsement of Trump followed days of speculation that he sought to secure a position in Trump’s future administration. Trump mentioned to CNN earlier this week that he would “certainly be open” to including Kennedy in his administration, while Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., suggested Kennedy might be suited to “blow up” a federal department.
Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar at the conservative Institute for Policy Innovation, told the BBC that Mr. Kennedy’s decision underscores the challenges of the US two-party system and “how difficult it is to introduce new ideas and fresh faces into the process.”
Kennedy Jr., Robert F., suspends his campaign and endorses Trump.
