PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Longtime environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated Monday he’ll run for president as an impartial and drop his Democratic major bid, including a wrinkle to a 2024 race heading towards a probable rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Talking Monday from Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, the place America’s founding paperwork have been adopted, Kennedy stated there’s a “rising tide of discontent” within the nation and stated he desires to make a “new Declaration of Independence” — from companies, the media and the 2 main political events.
“I’ve come right here right this moment to declare our independence from the tyranny of corruption which robs us of inexpensive lives, our perception sooner or later, and our respect for one another,” Kennedy stated. “However to do this I have to first declare my very own independence. Independence from the Democratic Social gathering and from all different political events.”
Kennedy, a member of one of the vital well-known Democratic households in politics, was operating a long-shot major bid and has higher favorability scores amongst Republicans than Democrats. It’s unclear whether or not GOP assist would translate to a basic election when Kennedy would even be operating in opposition to Trump. Allies of each Biden and Trump have at occasions questioned whether or not Kennedy could be a spoiler in opposition to their candidate.
“The reality is, they’re each proper,” Kennedy stated in his speech. “My intention is to spoil it for each of them.”
Biden’s allies to this point have dismissed Kennedy’s major marketing campaign as unserious. Requested for remark forward of the announcement, a Democratic Nationwide Committee spokesman responded with an eye fixed roll emoji.
The Republican Nationwide Committee revealed a truth sheet earlier than Kennedy’s speech titled “Radical DEMOCRAT RFK Jr.” that lists occasions he supported liberal politicians or concepts. The doc additionally listed occasions he supported conspiracy theories about COVID-19 or “stolen-election claims” associated to the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections that Democrats misplaced to President George W. Bush. Trump continues to advertise the disproved concept that his loss to Biden was the results of a stolen election.
A whole lot of supporters gathered for Kennedy’s remarks, at occasions chanting, “RFK, all the best way!” Marketing campaign indicators teased a possible new slogan: “Declare your independence.”
Amongst Kennedy’s followers within the crowd have been a number of voters who stated they don’t establish as Democratic or Republican and consider Kennedy as a fact teller and a breath of recent air.
“He tells it how it’s,” stated Julia Hill, a 23-year-old scholar from New Jersey. “He doesn’t sound like a politician.”
Different supporters, equivalent to Brent Snyder, a disabled veteran from south Philadelphia, stated that they had voted for Trump up to now however have been on the lookout for a change.
“The final couple years I’ve been noticing the Republican Social gathering’s been going a manner I didn’t like,” Snyder stated. “Not that I agree with every little thing that’s occurring to Trump, however I believe proper now he has extra baggage than his nation wants. The division proper now could be simply horrible. We’d like somebody to carry either side collectively to make us work.”
4 of Kennedy’s eight surviving siblings put out a joint assertion denouncing his candidacy and saying they have been saddened by his announcement.
“The choice of our brother Bobby to run as a 3rd get together candidate in opposition to Joe Biden is harmful to our nation,” it learn. “Bobby would possibly share the identical title as our father, however he doesn’t share the identical values, imaginative and prescient or judgment.”
Monday’s announcement comes lower than every week after the progressive activist Cornel West deserted his Inexperienced Social gathering bid in favor of an impartial White Home run. In the meantime, the centrist group No Labels is actively securing poll entry for a yet-to-be-named candidate.
Kennedy has spent weeks accusing the DNC of “rigging” the get together’s major in opposition to him and threatening that he would possibly want to contemplate options.
In marketing campaign emails and movies, he blasted the DNC’s resolution to not host debates between Biden and different candidates and railed in opposition to the committee’s plan to present South Carolina moderately than Iowa or New Hampshire the leadoff spot on the first calendar this election cycle.
“In the event that they jam me, I’m going to have a look at each possibility,” he stated in September at a New Hampshire barbecue held by Republican former Sen. Scott Brown.
Far-right and anti-vaccine influencers near Kennedy additionally despatched sturdy alerts on social media suggesting he ought to or would depart the Democratic Social gathering. Final month, Joseph Mercola, an influential anti-vaccine physician who’s allied with Kennedy, ran a ballot on X, previously generally known as Twitter, asking if Kennedy ought to give up the get together.
Whereas Kennedy has lengthy recognized as a Democrat and steadily invokes his late father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle President John F. Kennedy on the marketing campaign path, he has constructed shut relationships with far-right figures lately. He appeared on a channel run by the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and headlined a cease on the ReAwaken America Tour, the Christian nationalist highway present put collectively by Trump’s former nationwide safety adviser Michael Flynn.
Polls present much more Republicans than Democrats have a positive opinion of Kennedy. He additionally has gained assist from some far-right conservatives for his fringe views, together with his vocal mistrust of COVID-19 vaccines, which research have proven are secure and efficient in opposition to extreme illness and demise.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine group, Youngsters’s Well being Protection, at present has a lawsuit pending in opposition to various information organizations, amongst them The Related Press, accusing them of violating antitrust legal guidelines by taking motion to establish misinformation, together with about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took go away from the group when he introduced his run for president however is listed as considered one of its attorneys within the lawsuit.
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Related Press writers Michelle Smith and Will Weissert contributed to this report.
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