Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will end months of speculation on March 26 by announcing his running mate.
Kennedy will break the news at 2 p.m. ET at a campaign event in Oakland, California.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. holds a voter rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Feb. 10, 2024. Mitch Ranger for The Epoch Times
Topping the rumored list of contenders is Nicole Shanahan, the Democrat ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
Shanahan, who was raised in Oakland, is a California attorney and the president and founder of the Bia-Echo Foundation. She also co-funded and developed Kennedy’s Super Bowl ad.
“In my opinion, he is the best presidential candidate we have on the issues close to my heart: environmental health, regenerative agriculture, and social justice,” Shanahan said of Kennedy in a USA Today interview.
Speculation has also swirled about prominent politicians, such as former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, and celebrities such as New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe.
2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard and former Massachusetts senator and Republican Scott Brown were also reportedly courted for the job. Brown says he declined an offer, whereas Gabbard is rumored to be pursuing one from former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy told The Epoch Times that his pick would be someone who connects with younger voters and has the leadership qualities to run the country.
“We have an extraordinary person. I can’t tell you who it is, but it’s not any of the people they’re talking about,” he said at a recent fundraiser in a video shared on X. “It’s somebody that is going to surprise people, and I think the country is really going to fall in love with.”
—Jeff Louderback and Samantha Flom
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at 40 Wall Street after a pre-trial hearing in New York City on March 25, 2024. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
TRUMP BATTLES ON IN NEW YORK
A New York appellate court handed former President Donald Trump a win yesterday, lowering the $464 million bond required for an appeal of state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s judgment against him.
The court scaled back the bond to a more manageable $175 million. The panel also stayed enforcement of the judge’s ruling barring Trump and his sons from managing their businesses or applying for loans in New York.
But the stay also comes with stipulations. Trump must post the bond within 10 days, and his attorneys must secure an appeal in the court’s September 2024 term.
The former president, in New York for another court case, told reporters he would post the money “quickly.”
At a later press conference, he reiterated his belief that the many legal cases he is currently fighting are nothing more than “election interference.”
“They could have started this when I left office ... and you know why they didn’t start it? Because they didn’t know I’d be running, and they didn’t know how well I’d do,” he said.
“If I wasn’t running, none of these trials would be happening. We’ll see how it all works out in the end.”
Trump was in court on March 25 for the criminal falsification of business records case being brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The hearing was to set a new date for the trial, which was initially slated to begin this week.
Trump’s attorneys had asked for an extension due to their late receipt of discovery from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Although Justice Juan Merchan found that Bragg was not at fault for that, he set a new trial date for April 15.
The judge also said he would allow Trump’s attorneys to file an additional motion to delay based on the potential harmful effects of negative pre-trial publicity.
Trump signaled after the hearing that his team would do so.
“I don’t know how you can have a trial like this in the middle of an election, a presidential election—and this is a Biden trial, these are all Biden trials,” he told reporters, suggesting that the prosecution was working in concert with President Joe Biden’s Justice Department.
“I don’t know that you’re going to have a trial,” he continued. “I think we’re going to get some court rulings.”
—Catherine Yang, Jack Phillips, and Samantha Flom
ABORTION PILL AT SCOTUS
Another abortion pill case has reached the Supreme Court—this time challenging the Biden administration’s decision to relax certain regulations around how women receive the pill.
Oral argument on March 26 will likely focus on whether the Food and Drug Administration failed to abide by its standards for protecting women’s safety and health, as well as whether the individuals challenging the FDA regulations have standing—the idea that they suffered harm that allows them to sue in court.
U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on March 22, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
A group of doctors is challenging the FDA’s 2016 and 2021 decisions, which collectively altered the dosage of the medication known as mifepristone, as well as how much women had to interact with doctors in person and receive the pill in person. The FDA’s rules, they argue, should receive scrutiny under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which allows for judicial review of certain types of agency action.
The Biden administration has argued that the doctors’ group, known as the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, lacks standing to bring the case given that the doctors rely on the possibility they might encounter patients with botched medication abortions. It also argues that overruling the FDA requires too much intervention by courts like the Fifth Circuit, which sided with the doctors.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA relaxed its requirement that providers dispense the pill in person to women. Pro-life doctors like Dr. Christina Francis, who leads the American Association of Pro-Life Gynecologists and Obstetricians, argue that in-person visits are important for ensuring women’s safety by, among other things, screening for ectopic pregnancies and gestational age.
Standing could be a big hurdle for doctors in making their case at the Supreme Court. University of California–Davis School of Law Professor Mary Ziegler told The Epoch Times that the conservative justices believe “you have to have a more imminent injury than just the possibility that people might do this thing.”
A more favorable legal environment may support the doctors’ case, according to Committee for Justice President Curt Levey. Levey told The Epoch Times that legal challenges to Trump administration regulations “ushered in an era of less deference to administrative agencies under the APA.”
Post-Dobbs, the pill has garnered additional attention given its potential for providing abortions for women in states that have restricted the procedure. The cases FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and Danco v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, combined for oral argument, are arguably the most important abortion-related cases to reach the justices since Dobbs.
The Supreme Court has declined to review the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone, which received pushback from Texas Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. But his decision set the stage for a battle over the FDA’s other regulations while also sparking a debate about so-called “judge shopping” by attorneys seeking to secure favorable rulings.
—Sam Dorman and Matthew Vadum
BOOKMARKS
Former President Donald Trump will take his Truth Social platform public today, The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reports. Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns the social media website, will be traded under “DJT,” Trump’s initials, on the Nasdaq stock market.
A law that would have loosened restrictions on where people can carry concealed firearms was vetoed by Wyoming’s Republican Gov. Mark Gordon, The Epoch Times’ Zachary Stieber reports. The Wyoming Repeal Gun Free Zones Act would have allowed concealed carry at government meetings and public primary schools and colleges.
Two senators are calling for the declassification of information surrounding TikTok-related national security threats, The Epoch Times’ Frank Fang reports. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) say the public needs to know the dangers posed by the social media app and its Chinese parent company ByteDance.
Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel says her recent ousting was a result of “tension” with the Trump campaign over the GOP presidential primary debates, The Epoch Times’ Samantha Flom reports. Her comments come on the heels of news that NBC has hired her as an on-air contributor.
Outgoing Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) has no regrets about leaving behind a “dysfunctional” House of Representatives, The Epoch Times’ Stephen Katte reports. His comments follow his earlier-than-expected exit last week.
