[ad_1]
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks in Phoenix, Arizona, August 23, 2024. | Photo: Olivier Touron / AFP
GLENDALE, United States — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the scion of a prominent American political family, dropped his bid for president on Friday in favor of Donald Trump, injecting new uncertainty into the race for the White House.
“I no longer believe I have a realistic path to electoral victory,” Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist whose approval ratings are in the single digits, said at a news conference in the swing state of Arizona.
Read more:
Trump maintains personal stance as Harris polls surge
Harris polls rise as Trump revisits birtherism
Trump sharpens weapons against new rival Kamala Harris
Kennedy, 70, decried the selection of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic standard-bearer without a primary and listed a series of grievances he has with his former party that he said led him to now “support President Trump.”
Kennedy failed to secure even half the votes in the 50 states, and his independent candidacy took many bizarre turns, including his claim that he had a parasitic brain worm and a story about dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park.
This also aroused opposition from most of the celebrities in his family.
“Our brother Bobby’s decision to support Trump today is a betrayal of our father and our family’s most cherished values,” his five siblings said in a joint statement supporting Harris. “It is a sad end to a sad story.”
The day before Kennedy dropped out of the race, a surging Harris gave a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, accepting the party’s nomination and beginning a 10-week sprint to Election Day on Nov. 5.
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on August 23, 2024. | Photo: Olivier TOURON / AFP
‘He’s a good man’
Analysts are divided over how Kennedy’s exit will affect the presidential race and how many of his supporters will turn to Trump or Harris.
However, in a very tight race, with both sides vying for that small swath of undecided votes, a few thousand votes in key swing states could determine who wins the White House.
At the Trump rally in Glendale, speakers including Charlie Kirk and Kari Lake made repeated references to the Make America Great Again movement, which they said welcomes everyone, including disaffected Democrats.
Minutes after taking the stage, Trump welcomed Kennedy at the microphone, with fireworks and the Foo Fighters singing “My Hero.”
Kennedy, looking slightly uncomfortable, told the cheering crowd that he hoped to work with a future President Trump to get “chemicals out of our food.”
Trump heaped praise on Kennedy, saying they would “fight together to defeat the corrupt political establishment and return control of this country to the people.”
He also used Kennedy’s appearance to announce the creation of the so-called “Independent Presidential Commission on Assassination Attempts.”
“Their mission is to release all remaining documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy,” he said.
Read more:
As the race for the White House intensifies, Harris challenges Trump: “Say it to his face”
Fearing Trump, LGBTQ+ Americans vote in droves
The 1963 assassination of the president — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s uncle — continues to fascinate many across the country and is the subject of countless conspiracy theories.
Kennedy voters also looked to Harris’ campaign, with campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon saying the Democrat “hopes to earn your support.”
“Even if we don’t agree on every issue, Kamala Harris knows that there is more that unites us than divides us,” she said.
Keeping pace
Less than three weeks before the September 10 debate in Philadelphia, Harris and Trump are neck and neck in the polls.
Harris, 59, a former California senator and prosecutor, emerged with strong momentum at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, outraising Trump and erasing his lead in the polls. She replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee last month.
In just one month, Harris, the first Black woman to top a major party ticket, raised a record $500 million.
Giving her campaign another potential boost, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Friday that the “time has come” to cut interest rates – a move that would reduce mortgage costs.
– ‘Ruthless’ –
Trump, 78, has been mobilizing his right-wing supporters with apocalyptic warnings about immigrant criminals and painting a dark picture of a “declining” country that only he can save.
Harris and the Democratic Party she leads have been moving toward the center.
GOP strategists spent a week in Chicago showcasing a parade of anti-Trump Republicans that included former Cabinet officials, a small-town mayor and a former state officeholder.
“If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot,” said former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Jeff Duncan.
While Democrats had previously described Trump as a demagogue, they instead took to mocking the Republican nominee in an effort to demean him and diminish his aura of invincibility.
Harris, on the other hand, called him an “unserious” person.
Read next
[ad_2]
Source link
