Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ended 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” Kennedy said were at the heart of his campaign.
Kennedy said he once believed in the Democratic Party because it was the “party of labor of the working, government transparency, a bulwark against big-money interests.
But it transformed, he said to a “party of war, censorship, corruption.” and one that “cancelled” the presidential primary to “hide the cognitive decline” of Joe Biden. He 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.
The impact of his endorsement remains to be seen, particularly in the wake of an energetically successful Democratic National Convention for Vice President Kamala 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.
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