The United States presidential campaign has taken a new turn. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced that he is suspending his campaign and has asked for votes for Republican Donald Trump, who in return will offer him a position on a “panel of experts” on child health in his administration. Hours after the announcement in Phoenix, Arizona’s crucial state, both candidates sealed their alliance at an event in the nearby town of Glendale.
The environmental lawyer has acknowledged that he does not have “a realistic path to victory” on November 5th due to the electoral system, which favors the existence of two major parties, and what he has termed “relentless and systematic censorship and media control” by the Democratic apparatus, which in his view has “drifted away” from the values that he joined the party for: “the fight against authoritarianism, corporate power, imperialism, and unjust wars.”
Trump promises Kennedy to lead “a high-level expert panel” to investigate childhood diseases
Trump accepted his support hours later by shaking his hand and introducing him to his followers, who received him with a great ovation, as “a phenomenal person, a phenomenal man who loves the people of this country” and that “has run an extraordinary campaign. I know it because he chased me a couple of times and I didn’t like it.”
Kennedy will only withdraw his candidacy in ten competitive states where, according to his internal polls, he believes he could harm the former president, but he will keep his ballots in the rest of the electoral districts. This decision – which CNN anticipated this week and which comes a day after his rival, Kamala Harris, concluded the Democratic convention with an acclaimed speech – could improve the Republic’s chances in such tight elections as those projected by the polls.
The independent withdraws his candidacy in ten competitive states where he believes he could harm Trump
In exchange for his support, Trump has made two promises. First, he said that Kennedy would be in charge of a new task force to investigate the rising chronic health problems in the country and childhood diseases. Secondly, he will create an independent presidential commission on assassination attempts to release the remaining classified documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the uncle of the former candidate.
The dialogue between Trump’s advisors and Kennedy began before the Republican National Convention held last July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They reportedly met via call, according to CNN, and that is when the independent expressed his willingness to join his government. Weeks later, he tried to meet with Harris for the same purpose, but she rejected the meeting.
Kennedy began his presidential run in April of last year as a candidate for the Democratic primaries, but soon, in October, he decided to drop out after realizing he had been sidelined by the party, which massively supported Joe Biden, as usually happens with the sitting president seeking re-election. Since then, he has been trying to gather the necessary support to present his candidacy as an independent in all 50 states, but he has encountered legal and financial problems, as the effort required an investment of more than 15 million dollars.
At his peak, the controversial lawyer reached 15% in polling intention, according to the most optimistic surveys, a historically high support for an independent candidate. The latest polls, after Biden’s withdrawal from re-election, the nomination of Kamala Harris as his successor, and the attempted assassination against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, gave him an average of around 4%.
Support from the lawyer for the Republican mogul is not expected to greatly affect the presidential campaign, as Kennedy, despite starting as a Democratic candidate, appeals more to potential Trump voters than to Harris voters. And, in the American majoritarian system, it is most likely that a significant portion of his electorate would lean towards one of the two candidates to make their vote count, and it was expected that they would mostly choose the Republican.
“We are both in this to do what is right for the country,” Trump said, praising Kennedy for having “raised critical issues that have been ignored for too long in this country.” The independent gained popularity during the pandemic, being a regular on Fox News with his skeptical discourse about vaccines.
Recently, he has appeared on a series of podcasts with media figures from the American far-right, such as Alex Jones, Joe Rogan, and Jordan Peterson, and has voiced a multitude of conspiracy theories, such as that wifi radio frequency signals can cause cancer or that 5G chips are a surveillance tool.
It is not expected that the decision will have a significant influence on the campaign, but it could increase Trump’s options
He even stated, during his short primary campaign, that the coronavirus was “targeted at certain ethnicities, disproportionately affecting them,” specifically, “Caucasians and Blacks,” while the most immune “are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” Such comments have resulted in rejection from his family, which openly supports Harris and asserts that he does not represent the spirit of his uncle JFK.
At 70 years old, Kennedy is the last member of a Democratic political dynasty accustomed to tragic endings: his uncle, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated while in a presidential caravan in his third year of office (1963); and his father, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who was also a presidential candidate, fell victim to another crime five years later. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential aspiration ended this Friday with a handshake with the Republican mogul.
