Robert F Kennedy has suspended his long-shot presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump for president, handing a boost to the Republican candidate’s election prospects.
Mr Kennedy ended his 16-month White House run in a speech on Friday, where he praised Trump’s stance on the Ukraine war while claiming that Kamala Harris’ recent surge in popularity was simply “smoke and mirrors”.
He said his uncle, former president John F. Kennedy, and father, former attorney general Bobby Kennedy, would have been “astonished” at how the vice president had avoided interviews and debates.
“This is profoundly undemocratic”, he said. “How are people to choose when they don’t know who they’re choosing?”
The former environmental lawyer lashed out at the Democrats as the “party of war, censorship, big pharma, big tech, big ag and big money” – a stunning attack from a member of one of America’s storied Democratic dynasties.
In a statement on Friday, the Kennedy family hit back at “our brother Bobby”, saying his “decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear.”
“It is a sad ending to a sad story,” they added.
Mr Kennedy said he would remove his name from the ballot in 10 battleground states because it would have allowed Ms Harris to beat Trump. He will remain on the ballot elsewhere.
“Our polling consistently showed that by staying on the ballot in the battleground states I would likely hand over the election to the Democrats, with whom I disagree on the most existential issues,” he said.
The 70-year-old repeatedly attacked the vice president, in an intervention that threatens to blunt her momentum after she addressed the Democratic national convention on Thursday.
“[The Democrats] engineered a surge of popularity for vice president Harris based upon nothing – no policies, no interviews, no debates, only smoke and mirrors” he said.
Referring to her short-lived run in the primaries four years ago, he said she was a “candidate who was so unpopular with voters that she dropped out in 2020, without winning a single delegate.”
Kennedy could be rewarded with Trump ‘deal’
Mr Kennedy had reportedly been seeking a deal with Trump in which he endorses the former president in exchange for a senior job in a future Republican administration.
He said on Friday that he had had a series of meetings with Trump after the former president approached him.
Mr Kennedy said he was “surprised to discover” that they were “aligned on many key issues” – such as ending the war in Ukraine by negotiating with Vladimir Putin, securing the US-Mexican border and protecting freedom of speech.
The independent candidate said he had tried to open similar discussions with Ms Harris but she declined to meet with him.
Trump has previously made a number of overtures, both publicly and privately, to the independent candidate for his endorsement.
The former president, who had previously dismissed Mr Kennedy as “radical Left”, has praised him in recent days as “very smart” and “very good”. Responding to Friday’s announcement he said:
“We just had a very nice endorsement from RFK Junior,” Trump said.
“I just want to thank Bobby. That was really nice. He’s a great guy, respected by everybody.”
In a leaked phone call in June, the former president suggested it would be “very good” for Mr Kennedy if he won the election and echoed his well-known vaccine scepticism.
It is unclear what impact Mr Kennedy’s exit from the race will have, because the question of who the independent candidate draws support from has long puzzled pollsters.
A recent poll by The Wall Street Journal found that about half of Mr Kennedy’s voters would be likely to swing towards Trump, while about a quarter would go to Ms Harris.
However, a Washington Post poll this weekend suggested Ms Harris would see a one per cent boost against Trump if Mr Kennedy left the race.
Although the 70-year-old polls in the low-single digits, his voters could make a significant difference in a presidential race which is likely to come down to a small number of fiercely contested swing states.
Mr Kennedy’s move makes him the second candidate to duck out of the contest after Joe Biden suspended his campaign last month – something he labelled a “palace coup” by Democrats..
He suspended his campaign at an event in Phoenix, Arizona. Trump was due to speak at Glendale just nine miles away and teased a “special guest”, prompting speculation that the two men could appear onstage together.
Nicole Shanahan, Mr Kennedy’s running mate, said on Thursday that the pair were hesitant about joining forces with Trump because he oversaw Operation Warp Speed – the programme to roll out vaccines during the Covid pandemic.
“The vaccinations, the lockdowns… There was a lot that happened under Donald Trump’s watch that should not have happened and cannot happen again,” she said.
“And if we are going to put our bet with him – and we haven’t, we have not confirmed anything – but we need absolute assurance.”
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