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1 month ago
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has dropped out of the presidential race, leaving his rocky Independent campaign behind and aligning the iconically Democrat name with the Republican party of Donald Trump.
“In an honest system, I believe that I would have won the election,” he said today, running counter to polls but sounding very Trumpian, with talks of “sham” primaries and a “palace coup” against Joe Biden. He castigated Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris for not yet granting media interviews, a common Republican talking point in recent weeks.
Kennedy didn’t quite end his campaign, but says he’s merely suspending it and will remain on ballots in some states. He insisted it’s possible he might still end up in the White House.
Kennedy’s endorsement of the Republican candidate was not unexpected: Recent reports have him shopping around for a new side to play on, reaching out to both political parties and meeting with members of the Trump team. Kennedy’s campaign recently said he would make a statement on his “path forward” at today’s speech in Phoenix, Arizona. Trump is holding a rally in Glendale, Arizona, later today.
However unsurprising, the endorsement is, from a historical perspective, rather remarkable, putting a man with the famously Blue family name into the Red. Today, Kennedy said the Democratic Party “had departed so dramatically from the core values that I grew up with.”
Kennedy’s campaign has been beset by more problems than family ties and a dead bear cub: Just yesterday he officially withdrew from the ballot in Arizona, a not-unexpected outcome given recent news reports of dwindling campaign funds and a ruling by a judge in New York State that tossed out the signatures on his nominating petition because Kennedy had falsely claimed to be a New York resident. The court found that Kennedy actually lived in California with his wife, Curb Your Enthusiasm actor Cheryl Hines, and that the New York address he suppled was not his full time residence.
Today Kennedy described the various state requirements for getting on the ballots as a nearly impenetrable tangle.
Kennedy earlier said he’d fight the ruling, but today’s announcement would seem to bring that battle to an end.
The son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, the former environmental activist and scion of the staunchly liberal family of Democrats, RFK Jr. has in recent years leaned into 9/11 conspiracy theories, discredited ideas about AIDS, and anti-vaccine misinformation. His Kennedy relatives have largely distanced themselves from him, at least politically, and endorsed Joe Biden prior to Kamala Harris entering the race.
And lately Kennedy has been attracting attention for non-political reasons, including his revelation that he once suffered from the presence of a brain-eating worm and, more recently, his admission that in 2014 he placed a roadkill bear cub in Central Park, a stunt he thought would be “amusing” but instead prompted days of headlines and widespread concern over the mysterious origins and grisly demise of the animal.
And this week, video resurfaced of Kennedy telling a reporter that aligning with Trump would be “devastating” to his marriage to the anti-Trump Hines. Six months ago, when asked by TMZ about the statement, Hines said, “I think Bobby knows me very well.”
No word yet on Hines’ enthusiasm, or lack thereof, for the latest development in her husband’s career.
