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Three phrases instructed the story. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s marketing campaign had billed this afternoon’s occasion in Philadelphia as a “much-anticipated announcement.” After all, that particular phrase could have been extra true than meant.
Ever since Kennedy entered the Democratic presidential main race within the spring, observers had been anticipating that he’d someday announce his sincere intentions as a 2024 candidate. Given Kennedy’s rhetoric, his positions, and his help from conservative operatives, was he actually working as a Democrat? A pair thousand individuals—supporters, journalists, marketing campaign volunteers, individuals with nothing to do—trekked to Philly to search out out.
The candidate was nothing if not on message. Standing in entrance of a backdrop that learn DECLARE YOUR INDEPENDENCE, Kennedy regarded out at Independence Corridor as he spoke of “a brand new declaration of independence for our whole nation.” He rattled off a listing of all the pieces we’d quickly be impartial from: cynical elites, the mainstream media, rich donors. (Although, presumably, not the identical rich donors who lately raised greater than $2 million for him and his tremendous PAC at a non-public property in Brentwood, California, with assist from his pal Eric Clapton). Onstage, Kennedy formally declared his independence “from the Democratic Social gathering and all different political events”—maybe an unsubtle approach to shoot down hypothesis that he may change his thoughts and run as a Libertarian, or perhaps a Republican. As his spouse, Cheryl Hines, stated a bit cryptically earlier than her husband took the stage: “Are you actually prepared for Bobby Kennedy?”
Kennedy, whom many got here to know as a Boomer environmentalist, was the star of this mellow present with a definite ’60s campus vibe. At one desk, attendees had been invited to actually sketch their imaginative and prescient of the long run on clean sheets of paper with coloured pens. Throngs gathered on the grass in entrance of the Nationwide Structure Heart and had been led in a Native American tribal dance, adopted by the inoffensive piano stylings of Tim Hockenberry, who lined “Jersey Woman” in a Springsteen growl. Outdoors the doorway, enterprising distributors bought an array of Kennedy memorabilia: buttons that learn RESIST INSANITY, RAGE AGAINST THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE, and FIT TO BE PRESIDENT, that includes a photograph of a buff, shirtless Kennedy. One attendee waved a large black-and-white flag with a message for his or her fellow Kennedy-heads: WE ARE THE CONTROL GROUP. Many individuals wore fedoras.
They got here from throughout. Michael Schroth, 69, and his spouse, Luz, had taken a 4:30 a.m. bus down from Boston. Schroth instructed me he voted for Barack Obama twice, but additionally voted for the third-party candidate Ralph Nader twice, in addition to Jill Stein in 2016. “I search for the most effective candidate, and I don’t care in the event that they’re going to win or not. It’s getting the concept out,” he stated. Chris Devol, 56, from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, was sporting a Philadelphia Eagles hoodie and smiling ear to ear as he awaited Kennedy’s arrival. Devol instructed me he had voted for the third-party candidate Ross Perot in 1992, and that though he wasn’t certain whether or not he’d help Kennedy subsequent November, he “one hundred pc” supported the concept of him competing within the Democratic main. An aged lady named Barbara (final identify withheld), a retired instructor from Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, instructed me she believed that President Joe Biden wasn’t doing something to deal with the nation’s drug downside. She stated a bag of fentanyl was lately discovered on the steps of her native church, then requested me if I used to be acquainted with the Boxer Riot.
Previous to Kennedy’s tackle, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, one of many opening audio system, requested for a second of silence to honor the violence of this previous weekend. Somebody within the crowd yelled out “Warmonger!” One other screamed, “Free the Palestinians!” Boteach acknowledged neither particular person, and stated he vastly respects Kennedy, who has been accused of anti-Semitism, as a person of religion. Later, Kennedy stated he had arrived at a spot the place he was serving solely his conscience, his creator, and “you”—the voters.
This afternoon marked the end result of what he described as a “very painful” determination. He famous his long-standing ties to the Democrats, the occasion of his household, which he casually known as a dynasty, earlier than tearing into the tyranny of the two-party system. For weeks, Kennedy had been attacking the Democratic Nationwide Committee for “rigging” the first course of. (The DNC has refused to carry main debates, as is customized when a celebration’s incumbents are working for reelection.) Kennedy has been polling within the double digits in opposition to Biden, however his help hasn’t grown meaningfully since he launched his marketing campaign. As of final Friday, based on the FiveThirtyEight common, Kennedy was polling at 16.4 p.c in contrast with Biden’s 61.2 p.c. 4 of his siblings—Kerry Kennedy, Rory Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend—issued an announcement right this moment denouncing their brother’s newly impartial candidacy, calling his determination “perilous for our nation.” Kennedy acknowledged the problem forward of him. “There have been impartial candidates on this nation earlier than,” he stated. “However this time it’s going to be completely different.”
Kennedy is the second candidate in as many weeks to go rogue. Cornel West dropped his Inexperienced Social gathering affiliation in favor of an impartial bid, telling The New York Instances, “I’m a jazz man in politics and the lifetime of the thoughts who refuses to play solely in a celebration band!” Although neither Democrats nor Republicans appear significantly frightened concerning the candidacies of West or Marianne Williamson, Kennedy is completely different. “The Democrats are frightened that I’m going to spoil the election for President Biden, and the Republicans are frightened that I’m going to spoil the election for President Trump,” Kennedy stated. He waited for a strategic beat. “The reality is, they’re each proper.”
All 12 months lengthy, mainstream Democrats have tried to faux that Kennedy merely doesn’t exist, with combined outcomes. Each the Biden marketing campaign and the DNC declined to remark right this moment on Kennedy’s swap. The RNC, for its half, blasted out a listing of “23 Causes to Oppose RFK Jr.,” and reviews have been circulating that Trump’s allies are getting ready to pummel Kennedy with opposition analysis. Final week, the election analyst Nate Silver argued that Kennedy’s impartial run received’t essentially harm Biden, and it would even assist him. David Axelrod, the chief strategist of Barack Obama’s campaigns, took a special view. “I believe something that lowers the edge for successful helps Trump, who has a excessive flooring and low ceiling [of support,]” Axelrod instructed me.
Kennedy tantalized the group with nuggets that purport to make the case for his electability: “I’ve seen the polls that they received’t present you.” He identified that 63 p.c of Individuals need an impartial to run for president. Although he didn’t cite the origin of this statistic, it aligns with current Gallup polling, which additionally confirmed that 58 p.c of Republicans endorse a 3rd U.S. political occasion, up from 45 p.c final 12 months.
Kennedy has constructed his candidacy, and his profession as a lawyer and author extra broadly, on the concept that there are many issues “they received’t present you.” As I wrote in a profile of Kennedy this summer time, he has promoted a principle that Wi-Fi radiation causes most cancers and “leaky mind,” saying it “opens your blood-brain barrier.” He has prompt that antidepressants may need contributed to the rise in mass shootings. He instructed me he believes that Ukraine is engaged in a “proxy” warfare and that Russia’s invasion, though “unlawful,” wouldn’t have taken place if america “didn’t need it to.”
“He’s drawing from a lot of these Trump voters—the two-time Obama, onetime Trump—which are nonetheless disaffected, need change, and perhaps haven’t discovered a everlasting dwelling within the Trump motion,” Steve Bannon instructed me as I used to be reporting the profile. “Populist left, populist proper, and the place that Venn diagram overlaps—he’s speaking to these individuals.”
The fact is that Kennedy could have an especially exhausting time even getting his identify on the poll. The GOP “soiled trickster” Roger Stone, who earlier this 12 months was accused of being amongst these propping up Kennedy’s candidacy (one thing he has repeatedly denied), instructed me in a textual content message that Kennedy faces a “Herculean activity” with “50 completely different state legal guidelines written by Republicans and Democrats working collectively to make poll entry as troublesome as potential.” Even when Kennedy is true and voters are searching for a real various to Trump and Biden, mathematically, Kennedy’s path to 270 electoral votes is sort of incomprehensible.
Nonetheless, he stated he believes that he’s firstly of a brand new American second. “One thing is stirring in us that claims, It doesn’t need to be this fashion,” Kennedy stated onstage. He nodded to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech from the eve of his assassination and quoted Abraham Lincoln quoting Jesus Christ: “A home divided can’t stand.” He stated that the left and the precise had change into “all combined up.” He stated that he was proud to depend these on either side of the abortion debate amongst his supporters, along with “local weather activists” and “local weather skeptics,” and, in fact, the “vaccinated” and the “unvaccinated.” Maybe saying the quiet half out loud, Kennedy stated it will be very exhausting for individuals to inform “whether or not my administration is left or proper.” He had no scarcity of curious metaphors. He promised not simply to “take the wheel,” however to “reboot the GPS.” The nation’s two-party system? “A two-headed monster that leads us over a cliff.” And, in case it wasn’t clear: “On the backside of that cliff is the destruction of our nation.”
After I interviewed Kennedy for the profile, I requested him what he thought can be extra harmful for the nation: 4 extra years of Biden, or one other Trump time period. “I can’t reply that,” he stated.
Round that point, I requested his marketing campaign supervisor, Dennis Kucinich, if Kennedy was dedicated to working solely as a Democratic candidate.
“He’s working within the Democratic main,” Kucinich responded.
“So, no probability of a 3rd occasion?”
“He’s working within the Democratic main.”
“Gotcha. And nothing might change that?”
“He’s working within the Democratic main.”
Right this moment, after Kennedy completed talking, Kucinich briefly seized the mic and led the group in a constructing, dramatic chant:
“I declare my independence!”
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