PHOENIX — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his unbiased marketing campaign for the White Home and endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, a late-stage shakeup of the race that would give the previous president a modest enhance from Kennedy’s supporters.
Hours later, Kennedy joined Trump onstage at an Arizona rally, the place the gang burst into “Bobby!” cheers.
Kennedy stated his inner polls had proven that his presence within the race would harm Trump and assist Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, although latest public polls don’t present a transparent indication that he’s having an outsize influence on help for both major-party candidate.
Kennedy cited free speech, the conflict in Ukraine and “a war on our children” as among the many causes he would attempt to take away his identify from the poll in battleground states.
“These are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump,” Kennedy stated at his occasion in Phoenix.
Nonetheless, he made clear that he wasn’t formally ending his bid and stated his supporters might proceed to again him within the majority of states the place they’re unlikely to sway the result. Kennedy took steps to withdraw his candidacy in at the least two states late this week, Arizona and Pennsylvania, however election officers within the battlegrounds of Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin stated it will be too late for him to take his identify off the poll even when he needs to take action.
Kennedy stated his actions adopted conversations with Trump over the previous few weeks. He solid their alliance as “a unity party,” an arrangement that would “allow us to disagree publicly and privately and seriously.” Kennedy instructed Trump supplied him a job if he returns to the White Home, however neither he nor Trump supplied particulars.
Kennedy’s operating mate, Nicole Shanahan, this week entertained the concept Kennedy might be a part of Trump’s administration as secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Companies.
The announcement ended days of hypothesis and landed with heaps of confusion and contradictions from Kennedy’s aides and allies, an emblematic cap for a quixotic marketing campaign.
Shortly earlier than his speech in Phoenix, his marketing campaign had stated in a Pennsylvania courtroom submitting that he could be endorsing Trump for president. Nonetheless, a spokesperson for Kennedy stated the courtroom submitting had been made in error and the lawyer who wrote it stated he’d right it. Kennedy took the stage moments later, aired his grievances with the Democratic Celebration, the information media and political establishments, and extolled Trump. He spoke for practically 20 minutes earlier than he stated explicitly that he was endorsing Trump.
Kennedy later joined Trump onstage at a rally co-hosted by Turning Level Motion in Glendale, the place Trump’s marketing campaign had teased he could be joined by “a particular visitor.”
Kennedy was greeted by thundering applause as he took the stage to the Foo Fighters and a pyrotechnics show after being launched by Trump as “a man who has been an incredible champion for so many of these values that we all share.”
“We’re each on this to do what’s proper for the nation,” Trump said, later commending Kennedy for having “raised critical issues that have been too long ignored in this country.”
With Kennedy standing close by, Trump invoked his slain uncle and father, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, saying he is aware of “that they are looking down right now and they are very, very proud.”
He stated that, if he wins this fall, he’ll set up a brand new unbiased presidential fee on assassination makes an attempt that may launch all remaining paperwork associated to John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
And he repeated his pledge to ascertain a panel — “working with Bobby” — to research the rise in power well being circumstances and childhood illnesses, together with autoimmune issues, autism, weight problems and infertility.
A yr in the past, some would have thought it inconceivable {that a} member of arguably probably the most storied household in Democratic politics would work with Trump to maintain a Democrat out of the White Home. Even in latest months, Kennedy has accused Trump of betraying his followers, whereas Trump has criticized Kennedy as “the most radical left candidate in the race.”
5 of Kennedy’s members of the family issued an announcement Friday calling his help for Trump “a tragic ending to a tragic story” and reiterating their help for Harris.
“Our brother Bobby’s resolution to endorse Trump as we speak is a betrayal of the values that our father and our household maintain most pricey,” learn the assertion, which his sister Kerry Kennedy posted on X.
Kennedy Jr. acknowledged his resolution to endorse Trump had brought about pressure along with his household. He’s married to actor Cheryl Hines, who wrote on X that she deeply respects her husband’s resolution to drop out however didn’t tackle the Trump endorsement.
“This decision is agonizing for me because of the difficulties it causes my wife and my children and my friends,” Kennedy stated. “However I’ve the understanding that that is what I’m meant to do. And that certainty offers me inner peace, even in storms.”
In an announcement, Harris marketing campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon reached out to Kennedy’s supporters who’re “bored with Donald Trump and searching for a brand new approach ahead” and stated that Harris wished to earn their backing.
At Kennedy’s Phoenix occasion, 38-year-old Casey Westerman stated she trusted Kennedy’s judgment and had deliberate to vote for him, however would help Trump if Kennedy endorsed him.
“My decision would really be based on who he thinks is best suited to run this country,” stated Westerman, who wore a “Kennedy 2024” trucker hat and voted for Trump within the final two presidential elections.
Kennedy first entered the 2024 presidential race as a Democrat however left the social gathering final fall to run as an unbiased. He constructed an unusually sturdy base for a third-party bid, fueled partly by anti-establishment voters and vaccine skeptics who’ve adopted his anti-vaccine work because the COVID-19 pandemic. However he has since confronted strained marketing campaign funds and mounting authorized challenges.
At Trump’s occasion in Las Vegas, Alida Roberts, 49, stated Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump spoke volumes concerning the present state of the Democratic Celebration.
“It says that he doesn’t trust what’s going on, that it’s not the party he grew up in,” Roberts stated.
Roberts, who voted twice for Trump, stated she was relieved and excited by the endorsement as a result of she’d been “teeter-tottering” between the 2 candidates.
Current polls put Kennedy’s help within the mid-single digits, and it is unclear if he’d get even that in a normal election.
There’s some proof that Kennedy’s staying within the race would harm Trump greater than Harris. Based on a July AP-NORC ballot, Republicans have been considerably extra doubtless than Democrats to have a good view of Kennedy. And people with a constructive impression of Kennedy have been considerably extra prone to even have a good view of Trump (52%) than Harris (37%).
