Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suspending his 2024 presidential campaign.
“I am not terminating my campaign, I am simply suspending it and not ending it. My name will remain on the ballot in most states,” he said during a press conference in Arizona on Friday. He said he would take his name off the ballot in swing states.
Apart from criticizing the “mainstream media” and the Democratic National Party for undermining his campaign, Kennedy moved to endorse former President Donald Trump.
“Three great causes drove me to enter this race in the first place, primarily, and these are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump,” he said.
Trump, responding to the endorsement at a Las Vegas restaurant, said, “I want to thank Bobby, that was very nice,” as CNN reported. “He’s a great guy, respected by everybody.”
Later, at a Trump rally in Glendale, Arizona on Friday, Trump appeared with Kennedy, who had been teased as a “special guest.”
“We are both in this to do what’s right for the country,” Trump said, calling Kennedy “brilliant,” and a “phenomenal person, a phenomenal man who loves the people of this country.”
A national Deseret News/HarrisX poll found RFK Jr.’s exit from the race will likely benefit Trump more than Vice President Kamala Harris.
Will RFK Jr. have a place in the Trump administration?
During his remarks at his Phoenix press conference, Kennedy revealed the Trump campaign offered him a seat in the White House during two separate meetings.
“In those meetings, he suggested that we join forces as a unity party. We talked about Abraham Lincoln’s team of rivals, that arrangement would allow us to disagree publicly and privately and furiously, if need be, on issues over which we differ, while working together on the existential issues upon which we are in concordance,” he said at his press conference.
The news of Kennedy bowing out of the race first came through a court filing from his campaign.
“Respondents Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Nicole Shanahan as the We The People candidates for President and Vice President of the United States, as a result of today’s endorsement of Donald Trump for the office of President of the United States hereby withdraw their opposition to the Petition of Alexander Reber and Janneken Smucker’s,” the filing said.
Democratic Party, VP Harris reacts to Trump dropping out
Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, a California attorney, in an appearance on the “Impact Theory” podcast Tuesday, said the Kennedy campaign had two options.
“There’s two options that we’re looking at,” Shanahan said. “One is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and (Tim) Walz presidency, because we draw votes from Trump or we draw somehow more votes from Trump. Or, we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump. We walk away from that and we explain to our base why we’re making this decision.”
Trump previously told Fox News he “would be honored” by Kennedy’s endorsement. “He really has his heart in the right place,” he added.
The Democratic National Committee in a memo released Friday argued Kennedy bowing out of the race would not affect polling.
“Here’s what RFK Jr.’s endorsement of Donald Trump would change: nothing,” Reid said in the memo. “The little support that remains is soft, split across ideologies, and disproportionately among lower propensity voters.”
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign is attempting to pursue Kennedy’s voter base, according to CNN.
“If they were looking for somebody who’s actually going to fight for their interests, their values, or they’re looking for somebody who understood as it relates to the personal decisions that they make in their lives, the government should get ... out of the way,” a Harris campaign spokesperson said, “then there’s a home for them in Kamala Harris campaign.”