Former President Donald Trump thanked independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for his “very nice” show of support on Friday.
During a speech in Arizona on Friday, Kennedy announced he is supporting Trump in the presidential election, adding that the former president asked to “enlist him” in a possible Trump administration.
“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,” Kennedy said.
The son of late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy said he would leave his name on some ballots but remove his name from 10 battleground states.
Elaborating, he said he will remove his name in those states where he could be a “spoiler.”
“And I’ve already started the process,” he said.
People in Republican- and Democratic-dominated states can still vote for him “without harming or helping President Trump or Vice President [Kamala] Harris,” he said.
“In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic path to electoral victory in the face of this relentless, systematic censorship and media control,“ he said. ”So I cannot, in good conscience, ask my staff and volunteers to keep working their long hours, or ask my donors to keep giving when I cannot honestly tell them that I have a real path to the White House.”
He confirmed he held two meetings with Trump in recent days, including one right after the assassination attempt on the 45th president in July and a second meeting several weeks later.
“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,” Kennedy said.
Three issues, he said, propelled him to back Trump: free speech, the Ukraine–Russia war, and the “war on our children.”
Earlier this week, Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, suggested in a podcast interview that the campaign would be backing the former president’s 2024 bid, adding that she did not want Kennedy to become a “spoiler”-type candidate.
“I like him. I respect him a lot. I probably would if something like that would happen,“ Trump said. ”He’s a very different kind of a guy—a very smart guy. And, yeah, I would be honored by that endorsement, certainly.”
Before Kennedy’s speech, his campaign had indicated in a Pennsylvania court filing on Friday that he would be endorsing Trump for president. However, a spokesperson for Kennedy said the court filing had been made in error.
On social media, his wife, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Cheryl Hines, thanked campaign volunteers for their work, saying they “accomplished feats that were said to be impossible.”
Kennedy’s announcement came one day after Harris addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, formally accepting her party’s nomination for president.
Jen O'Malley Dillon, the chair of the Harris campaign, appealed to Kennedy’s supporters in a statement on Friday.
“In order to deliver for working people and those who feel left behind, we need a leader who will fight for you, not just for themselves, and bring us together, not tear us apart. Vice President Harris wants to earn your support,” the statement said.
