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PHOENIX — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his impartial 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 group burst into “Bobby!” cheers.
Kennedy mentioned his inner polls had proven that his presence within the race would harm Trump and assist Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, although current public polls don’t present a transparent indication that he’s having an outsize impression on help for both major-party candidate.
Kennedy cited free speech, the battle in Ukraine and “a battle on our kids” 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 depart the Democratic Occasion and run as an impartial, and now to throw my help to President Trump,” Kennedy mentioned at his occasion in Phoenix.
Nonetheless, he made clear that he wasn’t formally ending his bid and mentioned his supporters may 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 a minimum of two states late this week, Arizona and Pennsylvania, however election officers within the battlegrounds of Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin mentioned it might be too late for him to take his identify off the poll even when he desires to take action.
Kennedy mentioned his actions adopted conversations with Trump over the previous few weeks. He forged their alliance as “a unity occasion,” an association that might “permit us to disagree publicly and privately and severely.” Kennedy advised 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 that Kennedy may be part of Trump’s administration as secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Providers.
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 mentioned in a Pennsylvania courtroom submitting that he can be endorsing Trump for president. Nonetheless, a spokesperson for Kennedy mentioned the courtroom submitting had been made in error and the lawyer who wrote it mentioned he’d right it. Kennedy took the stage moments later, aired his grievances with the Democratic Occasion, the information media and political establishments, and extolled Trump. He spoke for practically 20 minutes earlier than he mentioned 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 can 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 person who has been an unimaginable champion for therefore many of those values that all of us share.”
“We’re each on this to do what’s proper for the nation,” Trump mentioned, later commending Kennedy for having “raised essential points which have been too lengthy ignored on this nation.”
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’re trying down proper now and they’re very, very proud.”
He mentioned that, if he wins this fall, he’ll set up a brand new impartial presidential fee on assassination makes an attempt that can launch all remaining paperwork associated to John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
And he repeated his pledge to ascertain a panel — “working with Bobby” — to analyze 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 current months, Kennedy has accused Trump of betraying his followers, whereas Trump has criticized Kennedy as “probably the most radical left candidate within the race.”
5 of Kennedy’s relations issued a press release Friday calling his help for Trump “a tragic ending to a tragic story” and reiterating their help for Harris.
“Our brother Bobby’s determination to endorse Trump right this moment 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 determination to endorse Trump had brought about rigidity together with his household. He’s married to actor Cheryl Hines, who wrote on X that she deeply respects her husband’s determination to drop out however didn’t tackle the Trump endorsement.
“This determination is agonizing for me due to the difficulties it causes my spouse and my kids and my mates,” Kennedy mentioned. “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 a press release, Harris marketing campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon reached out to Kennedy’s supporters who’re “uninterested in Donald Trump and searching for a brand new manner ahead” and mentioned that Harris wished to earn their backing.
At Kennedy’s Phoenix occasion, 38-year-old Casey Westerman mentioned she trusted Kennedy’s judgment and had deliberate to vote for him, however would help Trump if Kennedy endorsed him.
“My determination would actually be based mostly on who he thinks is finest suited to run this nation,” mentioned 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 occasion final fall to run as an impartial. 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, mentioned Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump spoke volumes in regards to the present state of the Democratic Occasion.
“It says that he doesn’t belief what’s occurring, that it’s not the occasion he grew up in,” Roberts mentioned.
Roberts, who voted twice for Trump, mentioned she was relieved and excited by the endorsement as a result of she’d been “teeter-tottering” between the 2 candidates.
Latest 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. In line with a July AP-NORC ballot, Republicans have been considerably extra possible than Democrats to have a positive view of Kennedy. And people with a optimistic impression of Kennedy have been considerably extra more likely to even have a positive view of Trump (52%) than Harris (37%).
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