Robert F. Kennedy Democratic Sen. John McCain Jr. has suspended his 2024 presidential campaign and will endorse former President Donald Trump, according to a court filing in Pennsylvania on Friday.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to drop out of the race and endorse Trump, multiple media outlets reported Wednesday. He made clear at an event in Arizona on Friday that he would not end his campaign, but rather suspend it, and that his name would remain on the ballot in non-swing states. He said that if enough people vote for him and Trump and Kamala Harris tie in the Electoral College, he could end up in the White House.
“In a fair system, I believe I would have won the election,” Kennedy claimed, citing a broad Democratic conspiracy with the media to suppress his ability to communicate his vision for America to the public. While Robert Kennedy Jr. blames “the system” for keeping him out of the White House, it may also have been due to a truly bizarre, scandal-filled campaign in which he pushed a host of conspiracy theories, brushed aside allegations of sexual assault, and admitted to throwing a dead bear in Central Park.
In a statement released Friday, Kennedy's siblings criticized his decision to endorse Trump. “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 dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story,” they wrote.
Trump is scheduled to speak in Arizona later Friday, and has teased a special guest.
Trump said Tuesday he would “certainly consider” nominating Kennedy for the job. “He's a brilliant man. He's a very smart man. I've known him for a very long time,” Trump told CNN.
Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., told conservative radio host Glenn Beck that the idea of bringing Kennedy on board would be a good one. “I liked the idea, I liked the idea of giving him some role in some big three-letter entity or whatever, and letting him blow it up,” he said.
Kennedy had an eventful career, from admitting to leaving a dead bear cub in Central Park to saying doctors found a dead parasitic worm in his brain. More seriously, he was accused of sexual assault, to which he responded, “I’m not a church boy… My youth was very tumultuous.”
Washington mail Kennedy, who is known to be a proponent of vaccine conspiracy theories, has previously been reported to have spoken to Trump about taking a job in his administration to work on health and medical issues.
“All I will tell you is that I am willing to talk to anyone of any political party who wants to talk about children’s health and how to end the epidemic of chronic disease,” Kennedy told mail.
Kennedy apparently begged his opponents for a job. According to mailHe tried to arrange a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris to talk about working with her as well.
Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s running mate, denied this. “We certainly didn’t talk to Harris,” she said. “We never raised any Cabinet positions with Harris.” She added, “We offered to talk to everybody.”
The Kennedy campaign has been weighing its options; Shanahan recently said the campaign was considering whether to withdraw or “join forces” with former President Donald Trump.
“They can pull out now and join Donald Trump, you know, walk away from that and explain to our base why we made this decision,” she said on the Influence Theory podcast, adding: “It’s not an easy decision.”
In July, the campaign spent more than it raised, with nearly half of the money it raised coming from Shanahan. The Kennedy campaign disclosed that it had returned $925,000 to Shanahan.
