Nicole Shanahan, the working mate of impartial presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., declared on a podcast that their marketing campaign could also be coming to an finish. However she says they’re not simply interested by closing up store and saying farewell to supporters. They’re contemplating endorsing Donald Trump.
“There’s two options that we’re looking at, and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump,” Shanahan instructed the enterprise podcast “Impact Theory.” “Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump and, you know, we walk away from that and we explain to our base why we’re making this decision.”
Kennedy’s greatest contributor simply so occurs to be Trump’s greatest contributor, who little question thought Kennedy would draw votes from President Joe Biden. However since Biden stepped apart and the Democratic Social gathering has rallied behind Vice President Kamala Harris, Kennedy’s marketing campaign has been shrinking towards irrelevance. Worse, as Shanahan acknowledges in her interview, current polling exhibits Kennedy pulls extra votes from Trump than from Harris.
So it’s time to finish the charade that the Kennedy marketing campaign was ever critical about something aside from serving to Trump.
Shanahan’s full look is … one thing. It’s stuffed with claims that the Democratic Nationwide Committee has “shadow-banned” Kennedy’s marketing campaign (although what it’s been banned from is just not clear), that it blocked him from taking part in debates (which, in actuality, he did not qualify for), and that it “planted insiders” to deprave the marketing campaign.
This is similar marketing campaign greatest recognized for explaining that the candidate just lately had a mind worm, that he planted a lifeless bear cub in Central Park, and that he reportedly apologized for sexually assaulting a babysitter by sending a textual content. It’s truthful to say that if Democratic insiders have been trying to disrupt the Kennedy marketing campaign, their actions by no means rose near the extent of sabotage that Kennedy inflicted on himself.
The reality is that Kennedy by no means had actual enchantment as a candidate past those that knew completely nothing aside from his identify—or those that shared a number of of his odious conspiracy theories.
Shanahan is the ex-wife of Google founder Sergei Brin. She delivered to the marketing campaign an estimated internet value of over $1 billion and her personal set of conspiracy theories, together with one proposing that the important thing to growing fertility is “two hours of morning sunlight.”
Within the interview with “Impact Theory,” Shahanan expresses some need to remain within the race, most of which appears to be targeted on the $13 million in public funding that could be accessible if she and Kennedy might get hold of over 5% of the vote. However 538’s polling common exhibits their marketing campaign getting just below that share, at 4.8%—and it’s lowering with time. Even somebody deeply enmeshed in junk science as Shanahan and Kennedy ought to be able to seeing that these funds aren’t a superb wager.
As our personal kos wrote on Saturday, it was all the time a stretch to imagine that Kennedy’s lengthy record of irrational beliefs would put him ready to take votes from the Democratic candidate. Not solely do a lot of his conspiratorial fantasies align with the QAnon conspiracy motion, however the one place Kennedy was establishing an everyday media presence was on right-wing platforms.
If it talks like a Trump and it’s on the identical platforms as a Trump, then conspiracy believers may simply begin to assume this can be a Trump. And so they did.
Ought to Kennedy and Shanahan present up at Mar-a-Lago able to wed their psychosis to Trump’s, nobody can be shocked. Or alarmed.
Hopefully, Trump will reward Kennedy with a proposal of a spot as surgeon common or head of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. Kennedy’s identify on the poll won’t quantity to a lot, however that’s the type of menace which may assist give Harris voters some further motivation.
