Robert F Kennedy Jr suspends presidential campaign, making a public endorsement of Trump

Robert F Kennedy Jr suspended his presidential campaign, making a public endorsement of candidate Donald Trump at an Arizona rally on August 23.

Kennedy´s public endorsement of Trump at Arizona rally

The presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke before 17,000 supporters at a rally in Glendale, Arizona on August 23, welcoming Robert F Kennedy Jr onstage to endorse him.

The rally came after Kennedy announced the suspension of his third-party presidential campaign. Kennedy´s vice-presidential pick Nicole Shanahan had previously said that RFK Jr´s stay in the race would result in Kamala Harris´s victory because “we draw votes from Trump.” At the rally, Trump pledged that if elected, he would “establish a panel of top experts” who would collaborate with Kennedy to investigate childhood health problems with Kennedy´s anti-vaccine group, Children´s Health Defense.

Trump supporters greeted Kennedy with applause and chants of “Bobby!” as RFK Jr proclaimed that if elected, Trump would “make America healthy again,” and that he would be a president “who is going to protect us against totalitarianism.”

United by the ties of presidential assassination attempts, Trump, whose July 13 case is currently being investigated by the Secret Service and the FBI, the former president announced after the rally that he would release “all of the remaining documents pertaining to the assassination of John F Kennedy,” if chosen in the November elections.

He stated that this action would be part of a proposed commission on presidential assassination attempts, including the one on his life and JFK. 

Kennedy´s campaign suspended before the endorsement of Trump

Framing his third party as an outsider movement, Robert F Kennedy Jr received more than 20 per cent support in the early polls, especially amongst Hispanic voters, but had recently been losing popularity; even more so since Vice President Kamala Harris took over Biden´s campaign.

On August 23, he announced the suspension of his presidential campaign but although election officials in Arizona, Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania declared his withdrawal, the authorities from Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin said it was too late for Kennedy to remove his name from the ballot. 

The unprecedented duo onstage at the Arizona rally, Trump and Kennedy share a past of publicly slandering each other, after Kennedy referred to Trump as “probably a sociopath,” and said he had “discredited the American experiment with self-governance,” in 2020. In the same year, Trump hit back at Kennedy, titling him as “one of the most Liberal Lunatics ever to run for office.”

At the recent rally, however, the two appeared in complete support of each other, as Kennedy said about their meetings; “We talked not about the things that separated us – because we don´t agree on everything – but on the values and the issues that bind us together.”

Kennedy´s siblings oppose the Trump endorsement 

America´s most iconic Democratic family, the Kennedys today are disunited by opposing political views. Five of RFK Jr´s siblings; Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Chris Kennedy, and Rory Kennedy said in a public statement before the rally, that their brother´s endorsement of Trump was “a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold,” and “a sad ending to a sad story.”

The family has pledged public support to Democrats Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Kerry Kennedy said to the Press earlier; “I think if he were alive today my father would have detested almost everything about Donald Trump.” Trump himself, referenced Kennedy´s father and uncle at the rally; “I know they are looking down right now and they are very, very proud of Bobby. I´m proud of Bobby.”