Columbia, South Carolina – Donald Trump is well-known for his frequent, and often personal, assaults on top competitors like Joe Biden. He’s recently taken a similar approach to independent presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Among the recent attacks, Trump last week produced a roughly four-minute video online in which he branded Kennedy a “fake,” a “Democrat ‘Plant'” and a “Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place” to support the Democratic president. Trump denounced the Kennedy family as “a bunch of lunatics.”
“He is not a Republican, so don’t think you’re going to vote for him and feel good,” the former president and likely Republican nominee wrote on Truth Social.
Directing such harsh comments at Kennedy may indicate that Trump and his campaign are concerned about the independent’s attempt in what is expected to be a close November race, in which a third-party candidate siphoning even a small percentage of support may sink one of the main candidates.
Six months after many Americans expressed unhappiness with a rematch between Trump and Biden on Election Day, Kennedy has offered himself as an alternative. Some of Kennedy’s themes, such as staunch support for Israel and condemnation of COVID-19 lockdowns, may appeal to conservative voters rather than Democrats.
Trump Is Increasingly Directing Personal Attacks Against Independent Rival Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
At this point, polls suggest that considerably more Republicans than Democrats like Kennedy, despite the fact that many Americans are unfamiliar with him. A February Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that 53% of Republicans viewed him favorably, compared to 30% of Democrats. In each case, around one-quarter stated they did not know enough about Kennedy to comment.
Kennedy’s campaign claims that he poses a threat to both Trump and Biden, who has received backing from various members of Kennedy’s own family and described the endorsements as “an incredible honor.” The president has mostly forgotten Kennedy, who fought him for the Democratic primary before running as an independent.
Kennedy has also challenged Trump to a debate at the Libertarian Party convention later this month, where both men will speak on separate days. Kennedy thinks Trump’s supporters are “wavering” in their allegiance.
But Kennedy has significant obstacles.
As an independent candidate, his name does not appear on ballots automatically. He has had to work to ensure ballot access in all 50 states, a process Kennedy says will be accomplished by the summer. According to his campaign, he has reached that milestone in five states (California, Delaware, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Utah), with enough signatures collected for eight more. In several states, officials have not validated the data.
Kennedy has stated that his relatively high performance in a few national polls causes him to believe he is competitive, even though horse-race polls are often untrustworthy this long out from an election. This is not a new pattern for third-party candidates in presidential races. During the 2016 campaign, early national polls showed that libertarian Gary Johnson had support in the high single or low double digits; he eventually received just about 3% of the popular vote.
Like a recent comedy gig in a Detroit suburb, supporters of Kennedy’s activities describe themselves as coming from all across the political spectrum, from individuals who normally support third-party presidential campaigns to dissatisfied Democratic and Republican voters. This included people who had previously supported Biden and Trump but are now disillusioned or uninterested in them.
Ben Carter, a White Lake, Michigan registered nurse, stated that he supported Trump in 2016 but “couldn’t do it again,” choosing Biden four years later. This year, Carter said he liked Kennedy’s willingness to tackle difficult issues, considering the independent candidate as eager to express unpleasant beliefs in a more appealing manner than Trump.
Trump Is Increasingly Directing Personal Attacks Against Independent Rival Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“I simply don’t hear Kennedy going out and lying about things. “Trump, he just stands up in front of the camera and tells blatant lies about things we know are true,” Carter stated. “He has his opinions that you might not agree with, but I haven’t seen him stand up in front of a crowd and lie to people.”
Trump supporters said they are fascinated about Kennedy’s candidacy, even though they remain firmly committed to Trump.
“He’s super interesting,” Kim Hanson, a Hartford, Wisconsin-based financial consultant, remarked on the margins of Trump’s recent event in Waukesha. “I love hearing from him.”
However, Hanson, a Trump supporter, expressed concern that the novelty of voting for Kennedy would distract from Trump’s support.
“I am concerned about people voting for people they think aren’t going to get in, and they aren’t voting for Trump,” she stated.
Kennedy and Trump appear to agree on a few issues.
Kennedy, like Trump, has been a staunch supporter of Israel in its war against Hamas. In April, he stated that the prosecution of rioters who brutally attacked the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, could be politically motivated, aligning himself with the false depiction promoted by Trump and his allies.
Kennedy criticized Trump, claiming that the attack on the Capitol occurred with Trump’s “encouragement” and “in the context of his delusion that the election was stolen from him.” But Kennedy also stated that if president, he would appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Trump loyalists were unfairly targeted for prosecution.
Kennedy has also accused Trump of economic harm to the middle class. Kennedy described pandemic-era lockdowns as “the worst thing he did to this country,” while conceding in the same address that Trump “gets blamed for a lot of things that he didn’t do.”
Kennedy, a longtime Catholic who describes himself as “pro-choice,” has adopted opposing views on abortion, as has Trump. He backed, then abandoned, the concept of a 15-week federal abortion ban but says he disagrees with Trump that the decision should be left to state governments.
Trump Is Increasingly Directing Personal Attacks Against Independent Rival Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
According to Bernard Tamas, a Valdosta State University professor who studies third-party presidential campaigns, Kennedy’s policy positions, such as his vaccine skepticism and staunch support for Israel in the war with Hamas, are “more likely to appeal to conservative voters,” an apparent threat to Trump at this point.
“It is quite possible that RFK will damage Trump more (than Biden), especially since there is unlikely to be any other moderate independent candidate for the never-Trumpers to vote for,” Tamas stated.
Tamas believes that even single-digit support for Kennedy might influence the general election outcome.“Losing even a small percent of votes to candidates like RFK Jr. could easily flip the election from one major party candidate to the other,” Tamas stated.
Brian Schimming, leader of the Wisconsin Republican Party, believes Kennedy will take support away from Trump and Biden, possibly from Trump earlier in the campaign but more from Biden later in the race. He claimed Republicans are more enthusiastic about the former president than Democrats are about the incumbent.
“But what does an incidental voter, or a voter who says to themselves consciously that they don’t feel strongly enough about either of these candidates, do?” remarked Schimming, a longtime Republican operative in Wisconsin. “In the end, they peel off votes from the weaker candidate because they’re dissatisfied, who in my mind is Biden.”
Desiree Sherdin, a small business owner from Germantown, Wisconsin, said during Trump’s event in her state that Kennedy’s opinions “tend to go left” of her own despite agreeing with his mistrust of vaccines. She said she would continue supporting Trump and expected many others to do the same.
“People who are loyal to Trump are fiercely loyal,” she stated.
SOURCE – (AP)
