His presidential candidacy is considered hopeless – but not without risks for Trump and Harris. Now the Kennedy offspring Robert is standing behind his competitor Trump.
Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suspended his election campaign and pledged his support to former President Donald Trump. “I no longer believe that I have a realistic chance of winning the election,” Kennedy said on Friday at a press conference in Arizona. He will therefore support Republican candidate Trump. However, his name will remain on the ballot in most states, Kennedy said.
Kennedy withdraws in the swing states
Kennedy was at 8.7 percent in the latest national polls conducted by the political website “The Hill” this week. According to experts, the votes of Kennedy’s supporters in some contested states could be decisive in the currently close presidential race between Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris. His name will be removed from the ballot in these so-called swing states, the 70-year-old announced. But he also emphasized that he is not ending his candidacy, just suspending it. In the other states that are firmly assigned to one of the major parties, people can still vote for him. According to CNN, Kennedy also said that Trump had plans to include him in his government if he won the election. In what form or role this would happen remained unclear. Trump, who was making an appearance in Nevada at the same time, reacted with delight.
Kennedy accuses Democrats of undemocratic means
Kennedy comes from the prominent political family and was himself a Democrat for decades, but in recent years he has increasingly distanced himself from the party and broke away from the Democrats altogether in October 2023 when he announced his presidential bid as an independent. The avowed anti-vaccination campaigner has been frequently criticized by Democrats and other members of his family for spreading conspiracy myths and having contact with extreme right-wing politicians.
Kennedy accused the Democrats of using undemocratic means to influence the election campaign to his and Trump’s disadvantage. “In the name of saving democracy, the Democratic Party has set out to dismantle it,” Kennedy claimed, accusing the party leadership of having started “a legal war” against him and Trump because of a lack of trust in their own candidate. Kennedy also lashed out at the US media, accusing them of unfair reporting and describing them as “mouthpieces of the government and stenographers for the organs of power.”
Kennedy has recently been making headlines with sensational stories. A few weeks ago he said he had disposed of a bear corpse in New York’s Central Park. In 2014 he found a dead bear cub, loaded it into his car and later left it in the famous park in Manhattan, he said. He had actually wanted to skin the bear and keep the meat in his refrigerator, but then had to rush to the airport. At that time a dead black bear was actually discovered in Central Park – the mysterious discovery puzzled the authorities. Before that, Kennedy had made headlines because, according to a newspaper report, he believed that a worm in his brain was responsible for memory loss a few years ago.
