RFK Jr. goes over the brink into MAGA-land.
Picture: Rebecca Noble/Getty Pictures
At a Phoenix press convention on Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed a number of days of rumors by suspending his presidential marketing campaign and endorsing Donald Trump, lending America’s most well-known Democratic identify to a person almost all modern Democrats detest. He’ll stay on the poll in “blue states” the place, as he made clear, he couldn’t actually assist Trump. However it seems he’ll actively marketing campaign for the previous president, maybe starting with a Trump rally later within the day.
Kennedy’s reasoning was comparatively clear, if not essentially compelling. He mentioned he had damaged with Democrats over the “existential points” of “censorship, conflict, and continual illness.” However it’s that first merchandise he dwelled on in speaking about his former celebration, accusing them bitterly of working with huge tech to warn individuals of his anti-vaxx views throughout and because the COVID pandemic, and rigging the 2024 primaries to maintain potentials rivals like Kennedy out whereas “hiding the cognitive decline” of President Biden. He repeatedly asserted he would have received a good struggle, in each the primaries and the overall election. He appeared to equate DNC authorized efforts to problem his poll petitions with authoritarianism generally and with supposed Democratic “lawfare” in opposition to Trump specifically. And sure, he did go on to accuse Democrats of being within the grip of “neocon” warmongers and of Large Ag and Large Pharma and different evil company forces who’re poisoning the nation and significantly its kids.
Properly over midway by his presser, Kennedy lastly pivoted to the optimistic case for endorsing Trump, asserting that they have been in settlement on the important thing problems with “free speech, the Ukraine Warfare, and the conflict on kids.” Once more, it appears Trump’s free-speech dedication quantities to little greater than being the enemy of Kennedy’s enemies, significantly those that have mocked his subscription to an array of conspiracy theories. He made probably the most sense in precisely describing the forty fifth president as lukewarm at greatest towards Ukraine. As for whether or not Trump will act on the prime concern of the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket — the alleged government-corporate plot to kill, sicken and fatten up youngsters to generate profits for Large Pharma and Large Ag — RFK Jr. appears to be relying totally on blind religion. He mentioned he hoped that Trump would “maintain his guarantees on this case,” recognizing that hadn’t been an excellent wager up to now, together with an acknowledgement that they don’t agree on quite a lot of points. (That’s an understatement; in April Trump accused Kennedy of being “much more LIBERAL than anybody working as a Democrat,” and extra liberal than Jill Stein or Cornel West.)
And so, this deeply alienated man will type a wierd partnership with the Republican candidate for president based mostly totally on a standard sense of grievance with Democrats and different elites, and a standard lust for vengeance. As for what his endorsement will likely be value, that’s unclear. He’s been dropping like a rock within the polls, particularly since Kamala Harris grew to become the Democratic candidate; the latest nationwide survey, by RMG Analysis, put him at three p.c of the vote. And it’s not in any respect clear what number of of his remaining supporters will comply with him over the brink into MAGA-land, which some appropriately understand as a spot the place environmentalists and those that fret about navy spending (a selected preoccupation of Kennedy’s working mate, Nicole Shanahan, who wasn’t on the presser however was apparently in on the choice) and childhood well being are sometimes handled as hippies and suspected Marxists. The timing of the transfer was handy in that many pollsters already within the area to determine if Harris will get a post-convention “bounce” will even be capable of discern whether or not Kennedy’s transfer swayed any precise voters.
We’ll additionally see what, if any, impact RFK Jr.’s help has on Trump, absolutely probably the most narcissistic and hard-to-influence presidential candidate ever. At his presser, RFK Jr. mentioned he wished to introduce a “tradition of kindness” into the Trump marketing campaign. Good luck with that, Bobby. Most likely ought to keep on with the script of whining and plotting vengeance.
