Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign for the presidency Friday afternoon, threw his support behind Donald Trump and floated a conspiracy theory involving the media and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I will not allow your efforts to go to waste,” the Democrat-turned-Independent told supporters, promising to “leverage” their work for Trump to serve the ideals of “peace, prosperity, of freedom,” which Kennedy said were at the heart of his campaign.
Kennedy emphasized that he once believed in the Democratic Party because it was the “party of labor, government transparency … a bulwark against big-money interests.”
But it transformed, he claimed, to a “party of war, censorship, corruption” — and, he said, one that “cancelled” the presidential primary to “hide the cognitive decline” of Joe Biden. Kennedy called Biden’s replacement by Kamala Harris a “palace coup.”
He accused the media of now colluding with Harris, whom he accused of avoiding press interviews and concocting a hoopla of a convention of “smoke and balloons.”
The announcement ended a highly unusual campaign.
RFK Jr. was a puzzle to many voters. He came from a legendarily progressive political family yet pushed some conservative positions.
He’s anti-vaccine and does not believe in government interference to battle climate change, insisting the market that created the problem can right the situation — though he has a reputation as an environmentalist.
Yet Trump once called him more “left” than Joe Biden.
Various poll results had revealed that Kennedy appeared to be pulling votes from both Trump and earlier Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Throwing his support behind Trump clarified where he stands on the political spectrum.
There were some far-out oddities during his campaign as well, such as Kennedy’s confession that he once dumped a bear cub killed in a car accident in Manhattan’s Central Park when a pal thought it would be funny.
He also said doctors once found a dead worm in his brain.
The impact of Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump remains to be seen, particularly in the wake of an energetically successful Democratic National Convention for Harris.
John F. Kennedy’s grandson, Jack Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg, son of Caroline Kennedy, endorsed Harris in a speech Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention.
JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg on Kamala Harris:
“She believes in America, like my grandfather did; that we do things not because they’re easy, but because they are hard.” pic.twitter.com/7fNzYb1pK8
— The Recount (@therecount) August 20, 2024
