Robert F Kennedy Jr. suspends US presidential campaign, endorses Trump | US elections 2024

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a scion of the Democratic Kennedy family whose independent presidential campaign threatened to draw votes from both Republicans and Democrats, has suspended his campaign and is endorsing Donald Trump.

Kennedy said he would remove his name from the ballot in states where the election was uncertain, but would keep his name on the ballot in other states. Some voters could still vote for him.

In a lengthy statement that began 45 minutes later, Kennedy said he would endorse Trump after a series of conversations with him, the first of which came days after the Republican nominee survived an assassination attempt on July 13.

“I was surprised to find that we agree on many important issues,” Kennedy said, explaining that he and Trump have met several times. “In those meetings, he suggested that we join forces as a unified party. We talked about Abraham Lincoln’s team of rivals. That arrangement would allow us to disagree publicly and privately and seriously, if necessary, on issues where we differ, while working together on the existential issues where we agree.”

He also praised Trump’s call to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, which he blamed on the US and the NATO alliance.

Kennedy said the war was one of three “great goals” that led him to enter the race and ultimately endorse Trump, the other three being free speech and what he called “the war on our children,” a phrase that encompasses his well-known opposition to vaccines, about which he has spread conspiracy theories.

Kennedy, whose uncle, John F Kennedy, and father, Robert F Kennedy, were both assassinated, announced he would run against Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination in April 2023.

However, he dropped out of the race last October, warning that under the two-party system the US was going “from despair to anger and back to despair again,” and ran as an independent.

Kennedy’s campaign was seen as a threat to both Harris and Trump, but Kennedy has been plagued by controversy in recent months. He was accused of assaulting a former babysitter, Kennedy believed part of his brain had been eaten by a worm, and in early August he admitted to staging a bizarre collision with a dead bear cub in a New York City park.

While his election campaign was failing, Kennedy reportedly approached Harris’s campaign in August to discuss withdrawing and supporting her in exchange for a job in her administration. Trump also tried to enlist him in July.

Kennedy’s popularity plummeted amid the scandals, having initially hovered around 10 percent in national polls. The 70-year-old was averaging about half that in August. The campaign struggled to raise money, with just $3.9 million in cash on hand at the end of July and debts of $3.5 million. Politico reported that Kennedy spent more than $7 million in July — more than the $5.6 million he raised.

Democrats and Republicans alike followed Kennedy’s campaign closely, knowing his combination of vaccine skepticism, tough border policies and ties to the most famous Democratic family in politics could win votes in key swing states.

As a former Democrat, Kennedy was initially seen as a bigger threat to the Democrats winning the presidential election, but in recent months he appears to be getting more votes from Trump, something his running mate Nicole Shanahan admitted on Tuesday.

“We’re looking at two options,” Shanahan told the Impact Theory podcast.

“One is to stay, to form that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and (Tim) Walz presidency, because we’re taking votes from Trump. Or we step down right now and join forces with Donald Trump. We step away from that and explain to our supporters why we’re making this decision.”

There is evidence that Trump saw Kennedy as a threat.

A video posted online on July 16 showed a phone call between Trump and Kennedy in which Trump appeared to offer the two a chance to work together in the future. The video came after reports — denied by Kennedy — that he would back down and support Trump.

At an event in Nevada, Trump thanked Kennedy for his decision to endorse him, and in a statement the campaign called the decision “good news.”

Harris’s campaign was less direct in its response, with a statement apparently aimed at Kennedy supporters: “For every American who has had enough of Donald Trump and is looking for a new path forward, our campaign is for you.”

Kennedy’s attempts to meet with Harris and discuss her support in exchange for a possible cabinet secretary position were ignored by Harris’ campaign.

His presidential candidacy has been fraught with controversy. Kennedy recently responded to an accusation that he sexually assaulted an employee by saying, “I’m not a church boy,” while in July 2023, a video surfaced of Kennedy making false claims that Covid-19 was “ethnically targeted” to attack black and white people while sparing Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.

Last year, Kennedy claimed that Wi-Fi causes a “leaky brain” and has linked antidepressants to school shootings. In 2023, he also claimed that chemicals in water were making children transgender, while Kennedy has long-held, and false, beliefs about apparently all vaccines.

In a joint statement, five of Kennedy’s siblings — Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Chris Kennedy and Rory Kennedy — criticized his support for Trump as a betrayal of the values ​​of their father, Robert F. Kennedy, the former attorney general and Democratic senator.

“We want an America full of hope and united by a shared vision of a better future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride,” they said. “We believe in Harris and Walz. Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values ​​our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.”