PHOENIX — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed former President Donald Trump in a lengthy speech Friday afternoon, ending his chaotic independent presidential campaign.
Kennedy’s campaign first confirmed the endorsement in a Pennsylvania court filing before taking the stage to speak in Battlefield Arizona. Later on Friday, Trump held his own event in nearby Glendale, where Kennedy was due to speak, in the culmination of weeks of negotiations, according to three sources familiar with the plans.
Kennedy began his speech on Friday with a tirade in which he accused Democrats of “abandoning democracy,” lambasted his “opponents” for not believing his campaign could succeed and accused the media and Democrats of a conspiracy to prevent him from becoming president. . Then Kennedy made the official announcement.
“Many months ago, I promised the American people that I would withdraw from the race if I became a spoiler… In my heart, I no longer believed that I had a realistic path to electoral victory,” he said.
Kennedy cast Trump and himself as victims of Democrats’ “continuing legal battles,” criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for not winning “a single delegate” during the 2020 campaign and accused her of ignoring the media and undermining her policy platform, to achieve what goal. He also compared Biden and Harris’ control of the Democratic Party to the Russian dictatorship under President Vladimir Putin.
By contrast, Kennedy made it clear that in Trump he saw a partner — and a victim.
“These are the principled reasons that convinced me to leave the Democratic Party, run as an independent, and now support President Trump. Those reasons are: free speech, the war in Ukraine, and the war on our children,” he said.
“One of the two candidates saw these issues as his own and even asked for me to join his administration. Of course, I’m talking about Donald Trump.”
Mary Beth Cahill, senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement, “Donald Trump has not garnered the support that would help build support, and he has inherited the baggage of a failed fringe candidate. Good riddance.”
Inside the negotiation
After weeks of secret courtship, Kennedy decided to support Trump. Donald Trump Jr. has been seeking to get Kennedy to endorse his father for six months, a person familiar with the situation said, while another source noted that Trump Jr. has long believed that Kennedy’s presence in the race hurt the Republican campaign. Activity.
For a while, polling was unclear on the issue. But things changed dramatically after Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee, and so did the polling landscape. The Trump campaign acknowledged this reality in a memo sent to reporters by pollster Tony Fabrizo after Kennedy’s announcement, which said polls showed Kennedy leading every Votes in key states “supported President Trump.”
Still, initial protections began earlier, about a week before the Republican convention, when right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson linked Trump Jr. to Kennedy.
Since then, Trump Jr. and donor Omid Malik have acted as intermediaries to help close the deal. Two sources familiar with the negotiations said Kennedy is expected to play a role in future campaigns.
In his speech on Friday, Kennedy detailed conversations and meetings with Trump and his advisers, saying he found “we agree on many key issues.”
He also hinted that he would have a say in a potential future Trump administration.
“If President Trump is elected and follows through on his promises, the enormous burden of chronic disease that is demoralizing and bankrupting the country today will disappear,” Kennedy said.
“President Trump told him he wanted this to be his legacy,” Kennedy continued. “I choose to believe that this time he will follow through. His son, his largest donor and his closest friends all support that goal.”
He acknowledged that aligning with Trump would be “a difficult sacrifice for my wife and children, but if there is a small chance of saving these children, it will be worth it.”
But he stressed that this alliance with Trump “will allow us to disagree publicly and privately” while still working together toward common goals.
Kennedy criticized agencies such as the FDA, adding that with “Trump’s support” they would “staff these agencies with honest scientists and doctors.”
As for his electoral future, Kennedy said he will only work to remove his name from the ballot in swing states because he wants to give supporters in both “red states” and “blue states” a chance to vote for him without “Hurt” or help.
He said technically he could remain on the ballot and thus be eligible to be president in 2025 if no candidate wins an Electoral College majority, but that’s not practical. is not possible as this would result in Demand that he win the Electoral College votes.
a long and difficult battle
Kennedy’s presidential bid has suffered setbacks due to strong Democratic opposition, controversy over the candidate himself and the difficulty of overcoming significant hurdles for independents trying to cast ballots across the country.
The decision comes as Kennedy’s running mates began publicly pondering this week whether he would end his campaign. Quit in support of former President Donald Trump. Even before that, his campaign Stopped hosting your own event And began an unusual public diplomacy with Trump, whose opponent Kennedy had harshly criticized early in the campaign.
Kennedy’s impending exit marks the end of one of the more quixotic presidential campaigns in recent history, one that initially garnered enough support Put the Democratic Party into panic On whether his candidacy could jeopardize their path to victory in 2024. Run as an independent bid.
His approval ratings fell, as often happens to candidates who have clashed with the country’s two-party system — though this time it came during a summer filled with campaigning.
Democrats’ decision to change presidential ballots led to a drop in the share of voters who said they supported third-party candidates, Let Kennedy break away from Trump to a large extent.. Even before that, Kennedy and his campaign had endured a difficult months-long stretch, raising questions about his viability.
Kennedy’s poll numbers have been declining, and neither the candidate nor his running mate have spent much time campaigning in recent weeks. Instead, the candidate is racking up negative headlines — the allegation He groped a former family nanny (To which he responded: “I’m not a church boy“); He staged a fake bicycle accident in New York’s Central Park using a dead bear found on the side of the road; Kennedy claimed Doctors found parasite in his brain More than a decade ago, among other things.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces the future of his campaign in Phoenix, Arizona, USA on August 23, 2024.
Thomas Machovich | Reuters
He struggled to reconcile his The career of an anti-vaccination activist The support of a broad electorate needs to be won. Kennedy has repeatedly courted anti-vaccine influencers and organizations who have been integral to his career, leading Democrats and other groups to sharply criticize his rhetoric and associations and label him a radical. On Thursday, after his campaign announced its intention to provide an update on the status of the race on Friday, he posted an 11-minute video on Twitter that he said was an attempt to “set the record straight by explaining my exact posture point by point,” This was probably the most controversial issue of my campaign,” his stance on vaccines. Just 24 hours later, he was withdrawing from the race.
Kennedy also vacillated on abortion policy throughout the campaign: In August 2023, while still running as a Democrat, he told NBC News He said he supported signing a national abortion ban after three months of pregnancy, but his campaign quickly walked back that comment. In May, Kennedy stated on a podcast that he would support full-term abortion. Stunning his running mate. A few days later, Kennedy Also retracted those comments.
On an organizational level, Kennedy’s camp has sometimes struggled under the weight of having to fund massive get-out-the-vote programs to get votes in enough states to win the presidency. By August, only a handful of states had confirmed Kennedy on the ballot, and he continued to face legal challenges, including Court decides to remove him from ballot In New York.
Although the voting rights plan did not have the desired effect, it did not come cheap. The Kennedy campaign spent more than $8 million on campaign consulting from Accelevate 2020 LLC, which also does ballot harvesting work.
Overall, the campaign has been effective in raising funds – as of July, $57.6 million had been raised and nearly $54 million had been spent. But the fundraising included a $15 million direct donation from JFK vice presidential nominee Nicole Shanahan, who spent a week spark speculation The campaign is coming to an end. (Last month, the campaign also refunded more than $900,000 to her.)
“We are looking at two options, one is to stay and form a new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency because we get votes from Trump or somehow To get more votes from Trump, “she’s in a Podcast interview released on Monday.
“Or we leave now and join forces with Donald Trump. And, you know, we leave this and explain to our base why we made this decision,” Shanahan continued.
“I am not a Kamala Democrat. I am not a Trump Republican (.) I am an independent American who supports ideas, not a person or a party,” Shanahan wrote on social media on Friday. .
There were other financial drains on the campaign, including the millions Kennedy spent on security as he repeatedly called on the federal government to provide him with Secret Service protection, which prompted the political assassinations of his famous father and uncle.
Federal campaign finance records show the Kennedy campaign spent more than $3 million on security services provided by Gavin de Becker, a well-known security consultant who protects celebrities. He was also a supporter and friend of Kennedy. The campaign also owes an additional $3 million to de Becker’s company.
The event Protected by the Secret Service following an assassination attempt on Trump in July.
Katherine Koretski reported from Phoenix; and Ben Kamisar from Washington, D.C.
