Washington, D.C. – Today, MoveOn Political Action spotlighted reporting from the Los Angeles Times showing just how dismal and pathetic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign has become and how he’s begun begging Donald Trump for a potential cabinet position as a way out.
LA Times: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. struggles for relevance as presidential campaign is remade
By James Rainey on 7/29/2024
A faltering debate performance, an assassination attempt and a dramatic exit from the presidential race all had one thing in common — they put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. even farther from the spotlight in the race for the White House.
Kennedy insists that his time is still coming and that President Biden’s decision to bow out in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris has driven a surge of interest in his independent campaign. But experts said they see this month’s historic events doing the opposite, pushing the independent candidate farther from relevancy.
Kennedy’s greatest recent attention came not because of news of progress in his own campaign, but when the Washington Post disclosed that he had talked to former President Trump about endorsing his campaign and taking a job in a second Trump administration.
“It sounded like he was nothing but a rank opportunist,” said Michael A. Genovese, a political scientist at Loyola Marymount University. “That was devastating for him.”
Melissa M. Smith, an expert on independent presidential candidates, said Kennedy’s path to relevancy has become even more difficult.
“The Republicans and the Democrats are just sucking all the oxygen out of the room right now,” said Smith, author of “Third Parties, Outsiders, and Renegades: Modern Challenges to the Two-Party System in Presidential Elections.” “There hasn’t been the opportunity for Kennedy to break through because there is so much stuff going on with major candidates.”
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The new campaign funds claimed by Kennedy’s camp have not yet shown up in Federal Election Commission records. Reports filed with the election agency showed that American Values 2024, the super PAC backing Kennedy, raised just $228,000 in June. His own campaign raised $5.4 million, while banking heavily on the $2.5 million donated by his running mate, Nicole Shanahan. But it spent more: $6.2 million.
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The independent candidate also had to go on the defensive after a Vanity Fair article reported that a weekend babysitter accused him of sexual assault when she was in her early 20s and worked for the Kennedy family in the 1990s. Text messages revealed that the candidate apologized to the woman after publication of the article, but Kennedy told reporters he recalled nothing about the alleged attacks.
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While Kennedy has been an energetic campaigner and draws a fanatical following among some Americans, most national polls have shown his support lingering in the single digits. He has been viewed by many as a fringe candidate, with the scientific and medical mainstream rejecting his claims that vaccines commonly injure people and can cause autism.
He excoriated both Trump and Democrats for the “500-day lockdown” that followed the spread of COVID-19 in 2020. He called the shutdown of churches, public gatherings and the tracing of health data part of “the greatest assault on the Constitution in American history.”
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Kennedy’s criticism of Democrats have provoked anger and disdain in the party, including from members of his extended family, members of one of America’s great political dynasties.
After news of the recent confab between Kennedy and Trump, the Democratic National Committee released a scathing statement.
Said DNC spokesman Matt Corridoni: “That RFK Jr. was engaging in the same backroom political deals that he claims to despise shows that he knows his spoiler candidacy isn’t going to land him in the White House.”
Read the full story here.
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