Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes a campaign announcement at a press convention on October 9, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Jessica Kourkounis | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned he’ll abandon his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and as a substitute run for the White House as an impartial.
Kennedy’s move raises the possibilities that he’ll play a spoiler within the 2024 election.
Kennedy introduced his break with the nationwide Democratic Party at an occasion in Philadelphia on Monday.
“How are we going to win in opposition to the established Washington pursuits? It’s not by taking part in by the corrupt guidelines that the corrupt powers and the vested pursuits have rigged to preserve us of their thrall,” Kennedy mentioned in a video launched Friday, teasing his “main announcement.”
In it, he decried what he claimed was “corruption” in “the management of each political events.”
His late father, Sen. Robert Kennedy of New York, and late uncle, President John F. Kennedy, are icons of the Democratic Party.
The shift comes as Kennedy lags far behind President Joe Biden in nationwide polls of Democratic voters a little bit greater than a yr out from the 2024 election.
In addition to Biden’s incumbent standing, which makes it very troublesome to problem him from inside the celebration, Kennedy additionally holds views that put him at odds with nearly all of Democratic voters.
Kennedy first garnered nationwide political consideration for pushing baseless anti-vaccine conspiracies throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. But he additionally opposes U.S. assist to Ukraine as that nation defends itself in opposition to Russian invasion.
Positions like these have helped to endear Kennedy to high-profile figures on the far proper, who sometimes align with former President Donald Trump.
In July, whereas Kennedy was operating as a Democrat, the previous president heaped praise on him. “He’s a really good man,” Trump instructed Fox Business. “And he is hit a little bit little bit of a nerve. And quite a lot of Democrats I do know need to vote for him.”
As polls more and more present Trump ever extra seemingly to sweep the Republican presidential primary, the prospect of an impartial run by Kennedy is being viewed by the White House as a doubtlessly critical risk to Biden’s reelection.
Former Sen. Hillary Clinton, the onetime Democratic presidential nominee, warned Biden earlier this month on the White House not to underestimate the potential affect of a 3rd celebration problem on a two-person race, NBC News reported.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein is extensively considered as having minimize into Clinton’s 2016 assist in key Midwestern states, doubtlessly tipping the election in Trump’s favor that yr.