2y ago

RFK Jr. is expected to drop his Democratic primary bid and launch an independent or third-party run

Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to announce Monday that he will drop his Democratic bid for president and run as an independent or third-party candidate, adding a new wrinkle to a 2024 race currently heading toward a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Kennedy’s campaign has teased the announcement in the days leading up to a Monday afternoon speech in Philadelphia. In a recent video, Kennedy said there is corruption “in the leadership of both political parties” and said he wants to “rewrite the assumptions and change the habits of American politics.”

The video came shortly after Mediaite reported he planned to launch an independent bid.

67 comments

You'd think that if you're gonna position yourself as a third party alternative, you'd drop the wild antivaxx shit since the crazy people already are going to vote republican.
- It’d be interesting to see who is paying him to run.
  
  Yeah. My eyes got WIDE open about the "function" of third-party candidates in the US after I saw in hindsight (because isn't hindsight always clearer?) Jill Stein's role in a prior election. They're basically there to shave off just enough votes from one of the major parties to tilt things one way or another. Easy for 3rd parties--no matter of they're crazies OR if they actually have legit policy stances that really should be considered, such as climate issues--to be turned into agents of chaos. People working the USA's political system from the outside work BOTH sides--the right and the left, pretending to be either one to sow discord as it suits their goals. The more division the better, for them.
  I really want various ballot initiatives to succeed in changing how voting is done in the US, so you can safely vote for the candidate you actually want without handing the election to the worst candidate. Voting would be much invigorated if you could vote for someone with pride and enthusiasm instead of, "At least they're not XYZ" which is what has to happen now working within the rules our system has for us.
  Here and there, a few states have implemented better systems with various flavors of ranked choice and such for their state elections, so they're not stuck in a two-party horror show for local elections at least, but there's a lot of hard work that has to be done before that gains enough momentum across many states and towns and smaller localities in the US that it might be feasible to change the way voting is done on a federal level.
  
  Not sure if the article is paywalled, but it's not really interesting who is paying him. What would be interesting is if normal people were supporting him, but only the kooks are looking for RFK Jr to make any waves.
  
  He probably pulls more votes from older voters based on the name recognition of his father, and unfortunately with how closely associated his father was with the Democratic party I’d imagine that pulls votes from Biden. Could be wrong though, maybe he’ll corner the market on crazy street.
- You would think, but it’s ok as he’ll divide the ant-science vote.
  
  The danger is if he pulls some D votes because he's a Kennedy. He's been working pretty closely together with roger stone and steve bannon if that tells you anything about the messaging he's been putting out.
Junior is going to find out quick and in a hurry why Ross Perot decided to create a political party in 1992. There are 51 different sets of ballot access laws that range from easy to byzantine. Good luck with that.
He's totally out of step with the Democratic base. It takes about a minute and a half to figure out the guy is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. His coalition, what there will be of it, will come off both fringes, but primarily off the right fringe and fringe libertarians.
He will take more votes from Trump than Biden
- Maybe we can somehow convince the right that voting for him will somehow take votes from Biden.
  
  That should be easy. His name is Kennedy and he was running democrat. And a large portion of republicans vote based on buzz words.
  
  “He was originally running to get the nomination in the Democrat party” (shibboleth intentional) should help
- They'll never understand that. They are accustomed to authoritarian ideas, and in those systems, you simply follow your leaders. You give your loyalty, and once given, your honor dictates it remains there. You know, old tradition.
  This is why they love to accuse science of being another kind of religion, instead of a process or method. That authoritarian idea of loyalty is creeping in.
  So, they can't understand a world where we don't just trust him because he carries the correct label and looks presentable. Remember, when their authority tells them to take Ivermectin or something, they just go fucking do it. So, they think we're the same, and when someone says "vote Kennedy" we just will.
  Remember, they also think we're all stupid. Like, really, really stupid. They do not see us as peers, they see us an inferiors who do not understand how "hard" the world is "supposed to be".
  Naturally, this is kinda amusing when its not sad and irritating.
  edit: Just thought of another good example. When covid was raging, if you wore a mask regularly, why did you? Was it just because you were told to, and you didn't think about it further? Nothing wrong with that of course, not everyone has time to research everything and sometimes you do just have to trust your doctor.
  But there's a second possibility. Did you maybe wear a mask because you understood how diseases get transmitted through the air and you figured, for yourself, that yeah, that might be a good idea?
  Authoritarians do not acknowledge the existence, or even the right to exist, of that second possibility. It's literally disallowed by authoritarianism itself, because it proposes the possibility of facts beyond the control of any authorities. In their world, should anything at all be beyond the control of the highest of authorities? No. No it should not, because the highest of all authorities is actually an omnipotent deity that is fully responsible for everything that exists.
- Great news!
- He will take more votes from Trump than Biden
  I sure hope so. I think internally, Republicans are (supposedly) freaking out over that, but at this point, I take nothing for granted after donnie's "win" in 2016.
  
  https://themessenger.com/politics/rnc-distributes-23-reasons-to-oppose-rfk-jr-list-ahead-of-major-announcement
Can't be a spoiler candidate designed to siphon votes away from Biden in the general election if he isn't on the ballot, hence this move to run as an independent as there's no fucking way he would win a primary.
- Polls are showing hes more likely to pull votes from Trump, the "centrist antivax conspiracy both sides" nonsense.
  The Trump campaign is rearing up attacks on him now.
  
  Have you got links to those handy? It'd be reassuring to see
He’s not wrong that there’s corruption in both parties leadership. Everything else on the other hand, completely insane about
- He's wrong if he's going to pretend that he's not part of that same corruption.
  
  It really makes you wonder where all the anti-corruptiom reformers are that aren't part of the problem.
- He's literally a chaos agent of Steve Bannon. He's not right about anything, and legitimizing him as a real candidate makes this worse.
  https://www.salon.com/2023/04/06/steve-bannon-spent-months-recruiting-anti-vaxxer-rfk-jr-to-run-against-biden-as-chaos-agent/
  "Former chief Trump strategist Steve Bannon spent "months" encouraging anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run against President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, according to a report from CBS News.
  People familiar with the matter told the outlet that Bannon hoped Kennedy could serve as a "useful chaos agent" in the election while also spreading "anti-vaccine sentiment around the country," according to CBS News' Robert Costa."
Yep, he just announced it. Truthfully I have no idea if this schedule hurts Biden or Trump more, but my gut says the latter
- I think this will hurt any dem candidates. Theres some older generations that might just vote for a Kennedy based solely on a name, my 76 year old granddad would be one of them.
Well good. Not only is this more honest of his ~~policies~~ weird racist conspiracies, it's also much less likely to go anywhere.
Cool. Spoil on friend!
- If anything, the more conspiratorial wing of trump voters might vote for him instead. I don't see antivaxx Harambe-did-911 voters realistically voting democrat anyway.
  
  My father has said he really likes RFK Jr. My father also voted for Trump twice and would vote for him in 2024 if he's the candidate - though there's a chance he'd get pulled over to vote for RFK Jr. instead.
Another politician trying to shave off votes, it happens every 4 years
Covid-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. Covid-19 attacks certain races disproportionately. Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.
-RFK Jr.
- The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews
  This is some medieval, "How come the Jews are surviving the plague better?!", boolshit.
  Perhaps because they have a history of practicing good hygiene?
  
  “Who survived Covid most?”
  “The ethno-religious group required to practice medically sound infectious disease practices and an ethnic group predisposed to wearing masks while sick. Both are disproportionately medical professionals.”
  “Conspiracy!!!”
- Well of course. The Jewish space laser blasts anti-covid beams over synagogues and the Chinese invented the virus as well as the REAL™ cure, and everyone else has CCP activation codes inside the vaccine and will activate during the FEMA broadcast test on ~~Oct 4th~~ rescheduled since too many people knew about it and turned off their phones.
  He also forgot the lizard people who cured themselves with 5G waves.
- The scientific evidence and statistics say half the opposite. Ashkenazi Jews actually had poorer outcomes overall as compared to other ethnic groups. It's just that they were more likely to follow masking and social distancing rules and got their vaccinations, so had less infections overall. But if they did contract Covid, it was way worse for them.
  Same with the black population, (though there were issues of not getting vaccines in those communities due to past genocidal testing by the US government on said populations) so I guess he's half right there.
Oh no, stop, come back.....
Democrats: 🕺💃
The one Kennedy nobody wanted.
Lmfao and the democrat voters were worried about Cornel West siphoning the few far leftists, there goes your center right republican votes.
Yet another Useful Idiot for #Ruzzia
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Asked for comment on his potential independent run, a Democratic National Committee spokesman responded with an eye roll emoji.
Monday’s announcement comes less than a week after the progressive activist Cornel West abandoned his Green Party bid in favor of an independent White House run.
In campaign emails and videos, he blasted the DNC’s decision not to host debates between Biden and other candidates and railed against the committee’s plan to give South Carolina rather than Iowa or New Hampshire the leadoff spot on the primary calendar this election cycle.
Far-right and anti-vaccine influencers close to Kennedy also have sent strong signals on social media suggesting he should or will leave the Democratic Party.
He appeared on a channel run by the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and headlined a stop on the ReAwaken America Tour, the Christian nationalist road show put together by Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
He also has gained support from some far-right conservatives for his fringe views, including his vocal distrust of COVID-19 vaccines, which studies have shown are safe and effective against severe disease and death.
The original article contains 642 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I hope he takes votes away from donnie mostly. And the Green Party just looks like a Russian front these days - I wonder if whatever useful idiot they prop up realize that, or do they come to terms with it later?

67 comments