Robert F Kennedy Jr

Subterms

    More stories

    • 188 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      RFK Jr is now political roadkill – what does it mean for Harris and Trump?

      by

      Hello, good day,First, an apology. We missed some big election news in July, when the town of Omena, in northern Michigan, elected a horse called Lucky to be mayor. Lucky becomes the first horse to hold the position – the largely ceremonial role was previously held by Rosie, who is a dog. We wish the 16-year-old stallion all the best for his time in office.One mammal who will not be becoming an elected leader, however, is Robert F Kennedy Jr. The bear-cub-vanquishing, non-dog-eating, brain-worm-surviving presidential candidate dropped out of the race, sort of, last week and endorsed Donald Trump. Kennedy was seen as a threat by both the Trump and Harris campaigns, and we’ll take a look at what his election exit could mean for both after some headlines.Here’s what you need to knowView image in fullscreen1.More legal trouble for TrumpThe justice department filed a new indictment on Tuesday against Donald Trump, over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump had already been charged in the case, but the new indictment aims to work around a supreme court decision in July which ruled that former presidents have complete immunity for official acts. Trump is charged with four federal crimes, including conspiracy to defraud the US, but the case is unlikely to go to trial before November.2. To mute or not to mute?The Trump and Harris campaigns are engaged in back and forth over the scheduled 10 September debate, with negotiations seeming to hinge on one issue: whether candidates’ microphones will be turned off when it is not their turn to speak. “Muted microphones” were used in the Trump-Biden debate in July, but the Harris team would like to keep the mics switched on the whole time – presumably with the hope that the notoriously undisciplined Trump will embarrass himself on live TV. Trump has said he wants open mics, too, but his team would rather they be turned off. “Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own,” a Harris spokesman told NBC. The saga continues.3. More than 200 Republican staffers endorse HarrisA group of 238 people who worked for former president George HW Bush, former president George W Bush, former Arizona senator John McCain and Utah senator Mitt Romney have come out in support of Kamala Harris, warning that a Trump second term “will hurt real, everyday people”. In an open letter published this week the Republican staffers wrote: “Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice-President Harris and Governor Walz … That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”The bear-conquerer is gone … what does it mean for Harris and Trump?View image in fullscreenWell, there goes that dream. We all knew Robert F Kennedy Jr would not be the next president of the United States, and it only took 18 months for him to figure it out too. The scion of the storied Kennedy Democratic family, who was running as an independent, brought an end to his campaign last week, and endorsed Donald Trump.While Kennedy’s campaign ultimately descended into a laughingstock – one highlight was when he was forced to reveal he had staged the death of a bear cub, another when he had to deny that he had eaten a dog – he was less of a joke to Democratic and Republican strategists.The election is likely to be decided by tens of thousands of votes in a handful of states, so if Kennedy had managed to persuade just a few people to vote for him over Harris or Trump, it could have tipped the scales of the election.In endorsing Trump, Kennedy claimed the former president had invited him to form a “unity government” – although Kennedy also admitted that Trump had given him no commitments about any actual government position. On Tuesday Trump appointed Kennedy to his transition team, giving him some influence in the policies a Trump administration would pursue, but does any of this mean that those Kennedy voters, whoever they are, will flock to Trump? And is Trump now a shoo-in for the White House?The answer seems to be: probably not.The polling boffins at 538 reckon the Kennedy exit and Trump endorsement will have “minimal impact on the race”. Ruth Igielnik, a poll expert at the New York Times, says it is “unlikely to change the nature of the race”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAccording to 538’s analysis of polling, if Kennedy hadn’t been in the race, his supporters would have been equally likely to vote for Trump or Harris, while polling shows that Kennedy’s supporters were less likely than Harris or Trump supporters to say they will definitely vote in November. So even if all Kennedy’s voters follow him to the Trump camp, they might not show up at the polls.That’s not to say it couldn’t have an impact.Biden won Wisconsin by just 20,682 votes in 2020. If Kennedy managed to win over 10,342 of those Democratic voters, and those people now vote for Trump, then assuming everyone else who voted in Wisconsin in 2020 a) votes in November, and b) votes the same way, then Trump would win the key swing state.But the truth is that Kennedy’s star had been on the wane for a while. Kennedy was polling at 10% nationally before Joe Biden dropped out: that has since dropped to 5%. Kennedy was also running out of money: at the end of July his campaign, which ended up being managed by his daughter-in-law, had $3.9m cash on hand, but was $3.5m in debt.In the end, Kennedy couldn’t even drop out properly. He’s withdrawing from the ballot in 10 states, including some of the states expected to be particularly close in November, but will remain on the ballot in 30 states. Oh, and some of the states he plans to drop out of have already started printing their voting papers, so Kennedy’s name could appear on the ballot anyway.While Kennedy says he endorsed Trump because they share some of the same priorities – ending the war in Ukraine, taking on big pharma, and sorting out the climate (lol!) – it’s telling that Kennedy also asked the Harris campaign for a job before deciding to back Trump.For now, Trump has received Kennedy warmly. On Tuesday it emerged that Trump had appointed Kennedy to his transition team, and while the addition of a man who looks like a melted GI Joe figurine and who says a worm ate part of his brain is unlikely to quell the accusations that Republicans are “weird”, it at least gives Kennedy something to do.Who had the worst weekView image in fullscreen
      Spare a thought for Steve Bannon, the rightwing media guru who helped mastermind Trump’s 2016 election win but is now, apparently, being “tortured” in prison.That’s what Rudy Giuliani – the occasional lawyer, regular Trump supporter and near-constant raiser of eyebrows – claimed in a recent interview.According to Giuliani, Bannon is being tortured by not being able to watch television while in prison, where he is serving a four-month sentence for defying multiple subpoenas. More

    • 200 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

      There’s a fair way to ensure third-party candidates don’t ‘spoil’ the US election | David Daley

      by

      Robert F Kennedy Jr has suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump, in part because he did not want to be a spoiler across competitive swing states. The third-party “spoiler problem”, unfortunately, will not vanish with him.Three committed independents and third-party nominees remain: progressive activist Cornel West, Libertarian Chase Oliver, and Jill Stein of the Green party. They could still tip the balance: the White House looks likely to be won by the tiniest margins across just seven swing states, just as it was in 2016 and 2020.The next president should not be decided by whether Stein earns 0.4% in Michigan or 0.2%, or if Oliver claims 1.1% or 0.8% in Libertarian-friendly Georgia and Arizona. But under our current system, that’s very much possible.We need a modern fix that recognizes that third parties are here to stay, but also that a nation with a guiding principle of majority rule deserves winners who earn more than 50% of their fellow Americans’ votes. The best solution to the urgent “spoiler” problem – which we’ve been exhaustingly debating since Ross Perot’s run in 1992 – is ranked-choice voting (RCV).Two states – Maine and Alaska – have already adopted this common-sense, nonpartisan fix for fairer results and will vote for president this fall with RCV. Others should follow their lead. RCV has lots of benefits. But most crucially, by giving voters the power to rank the field, it fixes the spoiler effect that emerges in any race with more than two candidates.A RCV election works much like an instant runoff. If someone wins a majority of voters’ first choices, they win – like any other election. If not, the last-place finishers are eliminated, one by one, and their supporters’ second choices come into play to identify a majority winner.In other words, a Democrat in Michigan who wants a different approach in Gaza could feel free to rank West or Stein first, and Kamala Harris second. A Sun belt conservative who thinks the national debt grew too quickly under Trump could put Oliver first and the former president second. They could make their voice heard – without worrying that their vote would elect someone they fear could be worse on the issue most important to them.Currently, despite our political nuances and the increasing number of registered independents, the spoiler problem continues to be the prism through which every third-party run is considered. Kennedy never seemed likely to win, but pundits agonized for months over whether he drew more from Democrats or the Republican party. It’s no surprise that serious independent candidates or anti-Trump conservatives such as Larry Hogan and Chris Christie rejected entreaties to run this year, when such a run would be reduced to the question of who they’d “siphon” votes from.It’s too early to judge the effect that Kennedy’s exit will have on the race. His support had softened in recent weeks. Yet almost no matter how his supporters break, the most competitive states remain extremely close.As of 21 August, Harris leads Arizona by 1.2%, Pennsylvania by 1.6%, and North Carolina by 0.2%. Trump holds a lead of 0.8% in Georgia. Any of the remaining third-party candidates could easily exceed the margin of victory in competitive states. It’s not just Florida in 2000, when George W Bush carried the electoral college tipping-point by 537 votes, a margin far surpassed by Ralph Nader voters. In Wisconsin in 2020, the Libertarian Jo Jorgensen and conservative-leaning independents took more than twice as many votes as the margin between Joe Biden and Trump.It’s easy to imagine something similar this year, perhaps even an election night 2024 where the electoral college is knotted up. Harris and Trump each have 251 electoral votes. Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin remain too close to call, each separated by a handful of votes. A tense nation awaits the verdict.Wouldn’t the result have more legitimacy if everyone knew that the electoral votes in those states went to a winner with more than 50% of the vote?Kennedy might have left the scene, but third-party candidates are not going away. Nor should they be forced out. We can adjust to that reality, or we can dig in our heels, repeat this tired debate, blame Ralph Nader and Jill Stein for everything, forever, and – at a time when the country feels ever more polarized – risk electing a president without a majority in the decisive states, leaving us even more divided than we are now.There’s no silver bullet to everything that ails our civic spirit. Yet the road out of this toxicity might begin with embracing values that most of us hold dear: more individual choice is good, all of us should be heard and majorities must rule. Ranked-choice voting makes that possible.

      David Daley is the author of Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count and Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy. He is a senior fellow at FairVote More

    • 125 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump appoints RFK Jr and Tulsi Gabbard to transition team

      by

      Donald Trump has appointed Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, two former Democrats who have endorsed his bid for a second presidency, to the transition team that could shape his future administration.The pair will serve as honorary co-chairs of a body that will help him choose policies and personnel if he wins November’s presidential election, the New York Times reported.Kennedy’s appointment came after he suspended his own presidential campaign as an independent candidate last week and threw his weight behind an erstwhile opponent who, just four months ago, branded him a “radical-left lunatic”.He had already flagged up his new role in an interview with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host and prominent Trump supporter, posted on X.Gabbard, a former member of Congress for Hawaii, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and left the party shortly thereafter.She has rebranded herself as a pro-Trump celebrity and has been helping the Republican nominee prepare for a 10 September debate with Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, which is to be hosted by ABC.Gabbard and Harris clashed in a televised primary debate in 2019, footage from which was posted on social media on Tuesday.Gabbard, a former member of the national guard who served in the Middle East, criticised the Democratic party in the debate, saying it was “not the party that is of, by and for the people and continues to be influenced by the foreign policy establishment in Washington represented by [Hillary] Clinton … and other greedy corporate interests”. She also attacked Harris’s record as a prosecutor.Harris responded by describing Gabbard as “someone who during the Obama administration spent four years full-time on Fox News criticising President Obama”. She also accused Gabbard of “buddying up” to Steve Bannon, a key Trump supporter and adviser, to get a meeting with Trump after he won the 2016 presidential election.It is unclear what role Kennedy or Gabbard will play on the transition team, which also features two of Trump’s sons, Donald Jr and Eric, and his vice-presidential running mate, JD Vance.On Tuesday, the Wisconsin elections commission voted to keep Kennedy on the presidential ballot, despite requesting to be removed from the ballot in all swing states when he endorsed Donald Trump last week.US media reported that Kennedy would also remain on the ballot in another key swing state: Michigan. The presence of independent and third-party candidates on the ballots could be a key factor in states where four of the last six presidential elections have been decided by between 5,700 votes and about 23,000 votes.Kennedy, who has traded in debunked conspiracy theories about children’s vaccines and the causes of the Covid epidemic, has been touted as a potential member of a second Trump administration, and has said he would expect any role would involve healthcare and food and drug policy.Trump has supported some of Kennedy’s vaccine scepticism, but played down suggestions that he could appoint him as secretary of health and human services. That post would see him surmounting the potentially problematic hurdle of Senate confirmation.Marc Short, a former chief of staff to Mike Pence, who served as Trump’s vice-president, told the New York Times that the appointment of Kennedy and Gabbard was a setback to conservatives.“From the convention platform to the transition team, free-market, limited-government and social conservatives have been kicked to the curb,” he said. “Doubling down on big-government populists will not energise turnout among traditional conservatives.” More

    • 163 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      Special counsel files new indictment against Trump in election subversion case – live

      by

      Donald Trump faces a new indictment in the 2020 case against him after the US supreme court ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution.The new indictment filed by the special counsel Jack Smith dropped allegations that Trump attempted to pressure the US justice department in his effort to overturn his defeat.Kamala Harris’s campaign denied Donald Trump’s claims that the two sides had reached an agreement about their upcoming debate in September.The former president said Tuesday that he had agreed to the rules for the 10 September debate, which will be their first encounter since Harris kicked off her White House campaign. Trump had previously spent several days suggesting he might not participate.The vice-president’s campaign has suggested the debate terms have not been finalized.“Both candidates have publicly made clear their willingness to debate with unmuted mics for the duration of the debate to fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates – but it appears Donald Trump is letting his handlers overrule him. Sad!” the Harris campaign said in a statement.More on the updated indictment against Donald Trump:The justice department filed a new indictment against Donald Trump on Tuesday over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The maneuver does not substantially change the criminal case against him but protects it in the wake of a July supreme court decision ruling saying that Trump and other presidents have immunity for official acts, but not unofficial ones.“Today, a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment, charging the defendant with the same criminal offenses that were charged in the original indictment,” lawyers for Jack Smith, the special counsel handling the case, said in a filing that accompanied what’s known as a supersedeing indictment.“The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions in Trump v United States.”The document retains the same four criminal charges against Trump that were originally filed last summer. But portions of the new indictment are rewritten to emphasize that Trump was not acting in his official capacity during his efforts to try to overturn the election.Read the full story here:Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will sit down for a joint interview with CNN on Thursday, the outlet reported.The interview will be their first together and the first for the vice-president in more than a month. It comes as Harris has faced growing criticism for not sitting down with a major media organization or holding a full press conference since she began her campaign.The updated indictment against Trump was issued by a grand jury that had not heard evidence in the case before, the special counsel said.The new indictment keeps the same charges, but there are several key changes – primarily, the removal of allegations against the former president related to his interactions with the justice department.It also no longer includes Jeffrey Clark, an official at the justice department who promoted Trump’s false claims that the election had been stolen, as a co-conspirator.Donald Trump faces a new indictment in the 2020 case against him after the US supreme court ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution.The new indictment filed by the special counsel Jack Smith dropped allegations that Trump attempted to pressure the US justice department in his effort to overturn his defeat.It’s worth noting that Kamala Harris has not responded to Donald Trump’s announcement that he has reached an agreement for the rules of their debate on 10 September.Earlier this month, her campaign said she would be willing to do two debates, one on 10 September, and another on a to-be-determined date in October. Her running mate Tim Walz will do one debate with Trump’s pick, JD Vance, on 1 October.Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris say they support cutting taxes on tips, and the topic may come up at their debate on 10 September. But as the Guardian’s Michael Sainato reports, workers’-rights advocates aren’t thrilled about the suddenly popular policy:Tipping has always been a controversial subject in the US. Imported from Europe and popularized by some accounts after the fall of slavery to reinforce racial wage disparities, the practice comes freighted with historic baggage.Nor is it overly popular with consumers. Since the pandemic, 72% of US adults say tipping is expected in more places today than it was in 2019, according to a Pew survey. Four in 10 Americans oppose the suggested tips that have been popping up on payment screens everywhere from coffee shops and dry cleaners to self-service machines in airports.That hasn’t stopped Donald Trump and Kamala Harris from putting tips at the center of their election battle. Earlier this month, in a bold move, the vice-president endorsed a policy that the former president touted earlier this year to ban taxes on tips for service workers, as both candidates have been vying for working-class voters in the 2024 election, especially in the swing state of Nevada.At a glance, the idea of giving a break to tipped workers is attractive – in some states, the minimum wage for tipped workers is just $2.13 an hour, and an alarming 14.8% of those workers live in poverty. But the idea raises many issues: why should a low-wage worker who does get tips be treated differently from one who doesn’t? Will higher-paid workers be able to use the measure to cut their tax bills? Harris says no; Trump is less clear.Donald Trump agreed to the rules of the 10 September presidential debate after spending the last few days openly mulling pulling out of the event entirely. Here’s a look back at what we know about the squabble over the debate’s rules, from the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe:Donald Trump has expressed doubt that he will participate in a scheduled televised debate with Kamala Harris next month, hurling a trademark “fake news” slur at the network that agreed to host it.The former president and Republican presidential nominee threatened to pull out of the 10 September meeting with Harris, the vice-president and Democratic nominee for November’s election, in a post on his Truth Social network on Sunday night.Referring to an interview on ABC’s This Week earlier in the day with the host Jonathan Karl and Tom Cotton, the Republican Arkansas US senator, Trump questioned the network’s fairness for the only debate that both presidential candidates had already agreed on.“I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s(K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Trump wrote with his usual penchant for erroneous uppercase letters.He also alluded to his ongoing defamation lawsuit against the This Week host George Stephanopoulos and the ABC network over comments the anchor made in March stating Trump had been found “liable for rape” instead of sexual abuse in a case brought by the New York writer E Jean Carroll.Donald Trump says he has agreed to the rules for ABC News’s 10 September debate with Kamala Harris, which will be their first encounter since she launched her presidential campaign.The two campaigns had reportedly been at odds over the rules of the debate, with the biggest point of contention being whether the candidates’ microphones would be muted when the other candidate was talking. Politico reported yesterday that Harris’s team wanted the microphones live during the whole broadcast, which would be a change from the CNN-hosted June debate between Trump and Joe Biden.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that the debate will be held under CNN’s rules – which seems to indicate microphones will be muted when a candidate is not speaking:
      I have reached an agreement with the Radical Left Democrats for a Debate with Comrade Kamala Harris. It will be Broadcast Live on ABC FAKE NEWS, by far the nastiest and most unfair newscaster in the business, on Tuesday, September 10th, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Rules will be the same as the last CNN Debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone except, perhaps, Crooked Joe Biden. The Debate will be “stand up,” and Candidates cannot bring notes, or “cheat sheets.” We have also been given assurance by ABC that this will be a “fair and equitable” Debate, and that neither side will be given the questions in advance (No Donna Brazile!). Harris would not agree to the FoxNews Debate on September 4th, but that date will be held open in case she changes her mind or, Flip Flops, as she has done on every single one of her long held and cherished policy beliefs. A possible third Debate, which would go to NBC FAKE NEWS, has not been agreed to by the Radical Left. GOD BLESS AMERICA!
      Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will host fundraisers in three well-heeled western towns, the Harris-Walz campaign announced this afternoon.Emhoff’s first event will be in Ketchum, Idaho, on Thursday, and then on Friday, he’ll hold fundraisers in San Francisco and in Aspen, Colorado.Harris has raked in donations since entering the presidential race in late July following Joe Biden’s withdrawal, and saw a pronounced surge in fundraising during last week’s Democratic convention: More

    • 163 Shares109 Views

      in US Politics

      RFK Jr faces call for investigation into claim he chainsawed whale’s head off

      by

      His independent White House campaign has fizzled, but the flow of bizarre stories of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s unorthodox handling of the carcasses of wild mammals has experienced no similar suspension.An environmental group is calling for a federal investigation into the former presidential candidate for an episode in which he allegedly severed the head of a washed-up whale with a chainsaw – and drove home with it strapped to his car’s roof.The episode has parallels with another extraordinary tale reported earlier in August in which Kennedy confessed to dumping a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park and attempted to make it look like the animal was killed by a bicyclist.The latest grisly revelation, about the whale head, is not particularly new – it stems from a 2012 interview Kennedy’s daughter Kick gave to Town & Country magazine, in which she talks about a visit to other family members of the political dynasty in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, more than two decades prior.But the story’s re-emergence, following the bear tale and other off-the-wall declarations – including claims that part of RFK Jr’s brain was eaten by worms and that he had an apparent fondness for barbecued dog – has angered activists at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. The group previously denounced Kennedy’s candidacy and endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for president.In a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) this week, Brett Hartl, the organization’s government affairs director and chief political strategist, demanded an inquiry.“Mr Kennedy’s apparent transport of the marine mammal skull from Massachusetts to New York, and therefore across state lines, also represented a felony violation of the Lacey Act, one of the earliest wildlife conservation laws enacted by [the] United States in 1900,” he wrote, adding that it was also illegal to possess part of any animal protected by the endangered species act.“Normally, an unverified anecdote would not provide sufficient evidence as the basis for conducting an investigation. The [bear] story made it seem like this was normal behavior for him, so he may also possess additional illegally collected wildlife parts.”The former Kennedy campaign’s press office did not respond to a request for comment. And Noaa has yet to publicly acknowledge receipt of Hartl’s letter.The somewhat unpleasant recounting by Kick Kennedy – granddaughter of Robert F Kennedy, the assassinated former US attorney general and Kennedy Jr’s father – remains the only documented account of the whale incident.Describing her father’s fascination with animal skulls and skeletons as “eccentric environmentalism”, she tells how the whale washed up on a beach near Hyannis Port and he sped to the scene.“[He] ran down to the beach with a chainsaw, cut off the whale’s head and then bungee-corded it to the roof of the family minivan for the five-hour haul back to Mount Kisco, New York,” she said.“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet. We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day to day stuff for us.”Hartl, on X, called RFK Jr an “environmental criminal”. In his group’s denouncement of his candidacy, it said “his conspiracy theories go against the science-based foundation of all environmental protections”, and that he was no different from Donald Trump in terms of policy priorities “driven by what will benefit Big Oil and the greedy corporations that fund them”.Kennedy announced he was suspending his presidential campaign last Friday and immediately endorsed Trump. More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘Desperate’: Billy Baldwin denounces ex-friend RFK Jr for endorsing Trump

      by

      The actor Billy Baldwin has dismissed Robert F Kennedy Jr as a former friend while accusing him of betraying his values – as well as selling his political soul – after the erstwhile independent presidential candidate suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump.The rebuke from the 61-year-old Baldwin – the younger brother of fellow actor Alec Baldwin – added to the wave of blowback against Kennedy for his support of the former president. Kennedy himself acknowledged his wife – the actor Cheryl Hines – was “very uncomfortable” with his backing Trump. And his brother Max Kennedy published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times imploring the public to ignore Robert F Kennedy Jr’s maneuvering.Baldwin, in a lengthy post on X, explained that he has known Kennedy for decades.“We were friends,” Baldwin wrote. “I loved his politics. His speeches inspired me. We were neighbors. Our kids were friends. We carpooled the kids to school for a few years.”But now the actor said he has “completely” disavowed and dissociated from Kennedy.In the statement, Baldwin criticized Kennedy’s actions as the “desperate move of a man who had presidential ambitions but saw the door rapidly closing on the opportunity for him to hold any political office”. Baldwin added that the entire run “was a Hail Mary” – a phrase often used to describe a pass thrown in desperation but with little chance of success in the game of American football.Kennedy on Friday announced that he was suspending his independent White House campaign and then publicly endorsed Trump at a political rally alongside the Republican nominee in Arizona.Kennedy said that he and Trump had met several times and that they were “aligned on many key issues” – despite his reportedly having called him “a terrible human being”, “probably a sociopath” and the “[worst] president ever”.But, as Max Kennedy wrote, Robert F Kennedy Jr had also offered the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, his endorsement in exchange for a position in her administration if she won – though he received no response and then successfully offered the same deal to Trump.Baldwin described Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump as “not only a betrayal of the values and traditions of the Kennedy family” but also an act of “political cowardice”. Kennedy’s father was the former US senator and attorney general Robert F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 as he pursued the Democratic presidential nomination. His uncle was John F Kennedy, the Democratic president assassinated in 1963.“He has sold his political soul and desecrated the historic work and legacy of his father … and his uncle,” Baldwin said.Baldwin’s remarks echo the sentiments of five of Kennedy’s siblings, who in a joint statement recently said his endorsement of Trump betrayed their father’s family values.Kennedy on Sunday appeared on Fox News and addressed his siblings’ anger, saying that the family was “able to disagree with each other and still love each other”.Over the weekend, Kennedy’s campaign told CBS News that he had lost his Secret Service protection after suspending his campaign. That protection had been afforded to Kennedy after the failed 13 July assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania. More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in US Politics

      Robert F Kennedy Jr’s brother ‘heartbroken’ over Trump endorsement

      by

      Max Kennedy, the brother of Robert F Kennedy Jr, has implored the public to ignore his sibling’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election and endorse Donald Trump’s campaign to return to the White House.In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, Max Kennedy said “Trump was exactly the kind of arrogant, entitled bully” that his father, former US senator and attorney general Robert F Kennedy, stood against before he was assassinated in 1968 as he pursued the Democratic presidential nomination.Max Kennedy predicted his father would have admired the Democratic nominee for November’s election, Vice-President Kamala Harris, because she was a former prosecutor as well.“Her career, like his, has been all about decency, dignity, equality, democracy and justice for all,” Max Kennedy wrote.“I’m heartbroken over my brother Bobby’s endorsement of Donald Trump,” the piece added. “Robert F Kennedy’s life was dedicated to promoting the safety, security and happiness of the American people.”Robert F Kennedy Jr made the announcement to suspend his independent presidential campaign on Thursday. He soon appeared with Trump at a political rally in Arizona where he formally backed the former president, who clinched the Republican nomination despite his conviction on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, among various other legal problems.Kennedy said he planned on removing his name from the 2024 presidential election ballot in swing states to boost Trump’s chances of retaking the Oval Office. But Kennedy said he would remain on the ballot in other states that are not expected to decide the presidential race.In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Robert F Kennedy Jr claimed his campaign was undermined by “censorship” by the media – and not being included in the June presidential debate that preceded Joe Biden’s decision to halt his presidential re-election bid.Kennedy also described his periodic conversations with Trump before Thursday’s endorsement announcement, including one hours after the failed assassination attempt of the former president in July.While they agreed that they would be able to continue criticizing each other in connection with issues on which they don’t see eye to eye, “he invited me to form a unity government”, Kennedy said of Trump.Kennedy’s presidential bid and endorsement of Trump has drawn sharp criticism from the rest of his family. That includes his wife, actor Cheryl Hines, whom Kennedy has acknowledged was “very uncomfortable” with his endorsement of Trump despite her statement that she “deeply” respected her husband’s decision.And, before its suspension, his campaign was replete with controversies, including a sexual assault allegation made against him by a former staffer and the proliferation of numerous conspiracy theories over vaccine safety, Covid 19, wireless internet, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and antidepressants.Max Kennedy, a lawyer, is younger than his former presidential candidate brother. He is the ninth child of Robert F Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy – and he was the nephew of John F Kennedy, who was president when he was assassinated in 1963.He characterized his brother’s endorsement of Trump as “inconceivable”, noting how he had offered Harris his endorsement in exchange for a position in her administration if she won. But Max Kennedy said his brother received no response from the Harris camp and successfully offered the same deal to Trump.“It is all the more tragic because of our brother’s name. To carry the name Robert F Kennedy Jr means a special legacy within a legacy,” Max Kennedy wrote, explaining his father’s record cut a stark contrast with Trump’s on anti-racism, immigration, the rule of law, the environment and gun control. Max Kennedy said the same was true with respect to truth and democracy, apparently an allusion to Trump’s falsehoods about having been robbed of victory in the 2020 presidential race by electoral fraudsters, which drove his supporters to mount the deadly US Capitol attack in early January 2021.“I love Bobby. But I hate what he is doing to our country,” Max Kennedy wrote. “It is worse than disappointment. We are in mourning.“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be motivated to write something of this nature. With a heavy heart, I am today asking my fellow Americans to do what will honor our father the most: Ignore Bobby and support vice-president Kamala Harris and the Democratic platform. It’s what is best for our country.”Kennedy on Sunday said everyone in his family needs “to be able to disagree with each other and still love each other”. More

    • 188 Shares179 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump hails ‘very nice endorsement’ from RFK Jr as Kennedy siblings repudiate move – live

      by

      Speaking in Las Vegas today, Donald Trump acknowledged a “very nice endorsement from RFK Jr”.“That’s big,” Trump said, adding: “He’s a great guy, respected by everybody.”Trump added that he will discuss the endorsement further at a rally in Arizona this afternoon. RFK Jr was still concluding his remarks at the time.Like JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Robert F Kennedy Jr previously condemned and insulted Donald Trump on numerous occasions. With news of Kennedy withdrawing and endorsing the Republican, here’s a look back at a few of his past quotes on the former president:

      According to a New Yorker story from earlier this month, Kennedy recently wrote in a text message to someone that Trump is “a terrible human being”, adding, “The worse president ever and barely human. He is probably a sociopath.”

      In April, after Trump accused Kennedy of being a “Democratic plant”, Kennedy posted: “When frightened men take to social media they risk descending into vitriol, which makes them sound unhinged. President Trump’s rant against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims that should best be resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate.”

      In 2020, Kennedy said, “He is a bully. And you know, I don’t like bullies. And I don’t think … that that’s part of America’s tradition. I think, in many ways, he’s discredited the American experiment with self-governance.”
      The former disdain goes both way. Trump earlier this year called Kennedy “one of the most Liberal Lunatics ever to run for office”, adding, “Reminds me of this fly that’s driving me crazy up here. This fly is brutal. I don’t like flies.”RFK Jr’s wife, actor Cheryl Hines, tweeted about her husband’s decision to suspend his presidential campaign this afternoon, thanking the campaign’s staff for helping Kennedy overcome “the roadblocks and lawsuits that have been brought against them”:
      I’d like to extend a sincere, deeply heartfelt thank you to every person who has worked so tirelessly and lovingly on his campaign. … Over the last year and a half, I have met some extraordinary people from all parties – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. It’s been my experience that the vast majority of all parties are truly good people who want the best for our country and for each other. It has been an eye-opening, transformative, and endearing journey.
      Hines, who’s known for her role on the sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm, reportedly opposed RFK Jr’s decision to endorse Trump.The decision by Robert F Kennedy Jr to suspend his presidential campaign brings to an end one of the most bizarre campaigns of recent times.Kennedy, who introduced the general public to the concept of “leaky brain” and the idea that chemicals in water were making children transgender, initially ran for the Democratic nomination but launched an independent campaign in October 2023.His efforts failed to gain traction but left the public with some unusual, and some unsavory, memories.The scandals include revelations he dropped off a dead bear in Central Park; his claim that part of his brain had been eaten by a worm; an alleged photo he took of a barbecued dog; conspiracy theories about wifi radiation; and allegations of sexual assault.Read more here for a detailed recounting of the most notable controversies:After ranting live on Truth Social during Kamala Harris’s Democratic national convention speech last night, Trump couldn’t seem to shake it today. During an event at a Las Vegas restaurant, the former president complained about Harris’s speech, falsely claiming she had made no mention of the border and mocking her for repeatedly thanking the audience.“She mentioned ‘thank you’ about 50 times,” said Trump. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,” he said, making a guttural noise possibly for dramatic effect and then continuing to repeat the word: “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank – thank, thank.”“What the hell is wrong with her?” he said.The Harris campaign immediately posted the clip:Here’s a look at where things stand:

      RFK Jr announced the suspension of his presidential campaign and his endorsement of Donald Trump. In a nearly 50-minute address, the independent candidate cited his endorsement reasons as “free speech, war on Ukraine and war on our children”.

      Five of RFK Jr’s siblings have shared a statement denouncing their brother’s decision to endorse Trump. “We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride. We believe in Harris and Walz. Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story,” they said.

      JD Vance will attend a fundraiser next month hosted by Keith Rabois, Jacob Helberg and the “Trump 47 Jewish Coalition”. Rabois, an investor, and Helberg, an author and technology investor, are both Jewish (the two are also married). They have been critical of the Joe Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza, saying the president has not been vocally supportive enough of Israel.

      In separate appearances on Fox News on Thursday, Donald Trump and Georgia governor Brian Kemp set their long-held distaste for each other aside, with Kemp endorsing Trump and Trump calling Kemp “very nice”. “We’ve got to win from the top of the ticket on down,” Kemp said, speaking in response to Kamala Harris’s nomination at the Democratic national convention last night. “We need to send Donald Trump back to the White House.”

      Merrick Garland announced this morning that the justice department has filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the real estate software company RealPage. The DoJ alleges that RealPage’s algorithm provided landlords with recommended prices for rentals that allowed them to align their rents.

      Several Secret Service personnel from the Pittsburgh field office have been reassigned to administrative duties and ordered to work from home following last month’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump, according to sources speaking to CNN. In a report on Friday, CNN also reported that a member of Trump’s security detail has also been reassigned to administrative duties.

      In response to Kamala Harris’s speech at the Democratic national convention on Thursday, Donald Trump’s campaign released an email on Friday morning, calling Harris “dangerously liberal, not a centrist”. It went on to say: “Her record includes being named the most liberal senator, supporting eliminating private health insurance, and saying we need to ‘redirect resources’ from police. Kamala Harris is dangerously liberal, describing her as anything else is a lie.”

      Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, said on Friday that “the time has come” to cut rates, Reuters reports. During a speech at the Fed’s annual economic conference in Wyoming, Powell said: “The time has come for policy to adjust. The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks.”
      Robert Kennedy Jr. announced Friday that he is dropping out of the US presidential race and throwing his support behind Donald Trump.The 70-year-old scion of the expansive and reliably Democrat family said in a Pennsylvania court filing that he was dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House, according to the Associated Press.Kennedy, a life-long Democrat before he switched to independent – a reflection of his frustration after he was essentially blocked from challenging Joe Biden for the party nomination and later lost Democrat-financed challenges to appearing on state ballots -, said during a press conference that “in an honest system, I believe I would have won the election…”Kennedy point to the system that his father, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, and uncle, president John F. Kennedy, he said, had thrived in – ‘a system with open debates, primaries with regularly scheduled debates, a truly independent media untainted by government propaganda and censorship, a system of non-partisan courts and election boards, everything would be different.”He said polls had shown him beating existing candidates in terms of favorability. “I’m sorry to say that while democracy may still be alive at the grassroots, it has become little more than a slogan for our political institutions, for our media, for our government and most sadly of all for me and the Democratic party.Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, had hinted the Kennedy campaign might join forces with Trump or forming a new party “because we draw votes from Trump” or “we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump. We walk away from that and we explain to our base why we’re making this decision.”At the height of his campaign. Kennedy was polling at 10% of voters but since Biden dropped out from re-election in July and vice president Kamala Harris stepped in, Kennedy’s polling support halved. The big question is where that remaining 5% of voters go – with Kennedy and Trump, to Democrats, or withhold their vote entirely.At a campaign stop at a restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada, Donald Trump opened his remarks with a focus on tipped income, and his proposal to abolish taxes on tipped income if elected.“Nobody ever heard of this concept before,” said Trump, of his proposal to do away with taxes on tips, a form of taxation that especially affects restaurant workers. He called Kamala Harris, who has said she supports the same kind of policy, a “copycat” and complained about her decision to back the policy.“Can we get the culinary union to vote for Trump?” he said. “A lot of them are voting for us, I can tell you that.” The Culinary Union, which represents workers in food service, hotels and gaming, has already endorsed Harris for president.“The path to victory runs through Nevada, and the Culinary Union will deliver Nevada for president Kamala Harris and vice president Tim Walz,” wrote Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas, in a 9 August statement.Speaking in Las Vegas today, Donald Trump acknowledged a “very nice endorsement from RFK Jr”.“That’s big,” Trump said, adding: “He’s a great guy, respected by everybody.”Trump added that he will discuss the endorsement further at a rally in Arizona this afternoon. RFK Jr was still concluding his remarks at the time.Five of RFK Jr’s siblings have shared a statement denouncing their brother’s decision to endorse Trump.“We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride. We believe in Harris and Walz. Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story,” Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Chris Kennedy and Rory Kennedy said in a statement.RFK Jr’s campaign has clarified that it did not intend to endorse Donald Trump in a Pennsylvania court filing, according to reports.“Mr Kennedy has not endorsed president Trump,” Stefanie Spear, a campaign spokesperson, said in a statement to the Washington Post. “The filing was made by an attorney and not reviewed by the campaign. The filing is being updated.”The news comes as RFK Jr is speaking live to the nation.RFK Jr said he will “now throw my support to president Trump”.Citing the reasons for his endorsement of Donald Trump, he said the causes “were free speech, war in Ukraine and the war on our children”.“I want everyone to know that I am not terminating my campaign. I am simply suspending it and not ending it,” RFK Jr said.“My name will remain on the ballot in most states. If you live in a blue state, you can vote for me without harming or helping president Trump or Vice-President Harris,” he added, saying: “In about 10 battleground states where my presence would be a spoiler, I’m going to remove my name, and I’ve already started that process and urge voters not to vote for me.”“There in Chicago, a string of Democratic speakers mentioned Donald Trump 147 times just on the first day,” RFK Jr said.“Who needs a policy when you have Trump to hate. In contrast, at the RNC convention, president Biden was mentioned only twice in four days … What most alarms me is how the Democratic party conducts its internal affairs, or runs its candidates, let alone … resort to censorship and media control, and weaponization of the federal agencies,” he added.“Now, in an honest system, I believe that I would have won the election,” RFK Jr said.“My father and my uncle thrived in a system … [of] open debates with fair primaries, with a regularly scheduled debate with fair primaries and with a truly independent media, untainted by government propaganda and censorship. In a system of nonpartisan courts and election boards, everything would be different.”“I want to thank all of those dedicated volunteers and congratulate the campaign staff who coordinated this enormous logistical feat,” RFK Jr said, referring to his presidential run.“Your accomplishments were regarded as impossible. You carried me up that glass mountain. You pulled off a miracle. You achieved what all the pundits said could never be done. You have my deepest gratitude, and I’m never going to forget that, not just for what you did, for my campaign, but for the sacrifices you made because you love our country.”“As you know, I left that party in October because it had departed so dramatically on the core values that I grew up with,” RFK Jr said.“It had become the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech … and big money. When it abandoned democracy by cancelling the primary to conceal the cognitive decline of the sitting president, I left the party to run as an independent.”“I began this journey as a Democrat, the party of my father, my uncle, the party which I pledged my own allegiance to all before I was old enough to vote,” RFK Jr said.“I attended my first Democratic convention at the age of six in 1960 and back then, the Democrats were the champions of the constitution of civil rights. The Democrats stood against authoritarianism, against censorship, against colonialism, imperialism and unjust wars. We were the party of labor.”RFK Jr is now live on stage.Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates. More