‘RFK all the way’: Robert F Kennedy jnr announces an independent run for White House

Washington: The 2024 presidential election is set for a shake-up after Robert F Kennedy jnr – the scion of one of America’s political dynasties – announced he would run as an independent, potentially peeling away votes from incumbent Joe Biden and his most likely opponent, Donald Trump.

After spending the past six months running for the Democratic nomination, the environmental lawyer and long-time opponent of vaccines confirmed he would split from his party and run for the White House in his own right.

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy jnr has abandoned his Democratic nomination campaign to run as an independent at the 2024 election.Credit: AP

“I haven’t made this decision lightly. It’s very painful for me to let go of the party of my uncles, my father, my grandfather, and both of my great-grandfathers,” said Kennedy, the cousin of Biden’s US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy.

“Today we turn a new page in American politics… I intend to wrest the reins of both parties and return power to the American people.”

Kennedy’s announcement was made at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, a potent symbol of US democracy, where hundreds of his fans chanted “Bobby, Bobby!” and “RFK All The Way!” as the 69-year-old spoke on Monday (US time).

Supporters listen to presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy jnr on Monday.Credit: AP

In a strongly worded speech, he claimed that US politics was “rigged”, warned of a “rising tide of discontent” among voters and declared his “independence” from the two-party system.

“Instead of two parties we have a two-headed monster that’s constantly bickering with itself as it leads us over a cliff – and at the bottom of that cliff is the destruction of our country,” Kennedy said.

For the past few months, Kennedy has been polling at an average of 15 per cent among Democrats nationwide but has struggled to make inroads against the party’s establishment. It has locked in firmly behind the president despite public concerns about this age and overall performance.

While Kennedy has a limited chance of winning the White House, Democratic strategists admit his decision to run as an independent has the potential to upend the race, particularly in a close contest.

The son of former attorney-general Robert F Kennedy and the nephew of former president John F Kennedy, RFK jnr regularly invokes his family name on the campaign trail.

However, he is often regarded as the black sheep of the modern Kennedy clan, partly because of his anti-vaccine stance and his history of promoting conspiracy theories.

In July, he was accused of antisemitism after claiming that COVID-19 had been targeted to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people from the worst impacts of the pandemic – something he later insisted had been taken out of context.

He also suggested this year that man-made chemicals in the environment could be making children gay or transgender.

RFK jnr’s second cousin, Jack Schlossberg – son of Caroline Kennedy – recently described his presidential run as a “vanity project” and suggested he was trading in on “Camelot, celebrity, conspiracy theories, and conflict for personal gain and fame”.

Asked about those comments in a US Today show interview last month, Schlossberg, 30, doubled down, while Caroline Kennedy backed up her son, saying: “I know what I think, I know what Jack thinks, I know what Bobby Kennedy thinks. And so, it’s not complicated.”

Caroline Kennedy, with her son Jack Schlossberg.Credit: Getty

RFK jnr’s distrust of authority has nonetheless tapped into a broader sentiment among his supporters, who range from anti-vaxxers and anti-government individuals to celebrities and far-right figures.

Just before RFK jnr entered the race, longtime Trump-ally Roger Stone wrote a Substack post titled “What about Bobby?” in which he suggested the idea of a Trump-Kennedy unity ticket.

The now independent candidate has also appeared on a channel run by the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and headlined a Christian nationalist roadshow put together by Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

But in his speech, Kennedy lamented both sides of politics, and said his intention was to “spoil the election” for both Trump and Biden.

US President Joe Biden and former US president Donald Trump.Credit: AP/Getty

“Three-quarters of Americans believe that President Biden is too old to govern effectively. President Trump faces multiple civil and criminal trials,” he said.

“Both have favorability ratings that are deep in negative territory. That’s what two-party politics has given us, and that’s why we need to pry loose from – the corrupt powers in Washington DC – and make this nation ours again.”

Kennedy’s announcement comes less than a week after the progressive activist Cornel West abandoned his Green Party bid in favour of an independent run, while the third-party centrist group No Labels, run by moderate Republican Larry Hogan, the former governor of Maryland, is securing ballot access for a yet-to-be-named candidate.

However, his decision to run as an independent could prove risky given much of the favourable publicity he has received recently has been on right-wing cable networks, mainly due to the fact he was a key rival to Biden.

Robert F Kennedy jnr and his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, wave to supporters on stage after announcing his candidacy for president on April 19, 2023, in Boston, Massachusetts. Credit: Getty

In a sign of the attacks to come, the Republican National Committee’s research arm put out a tweet on Monday just before Kennedy’s announcement, listing 23 reasons to oppose his candidacy and saying “there is very little daylight” between him and a typical Democratic politician.

Among those reasons was that he voted for Biden in the 2020 election, had called for a ban on fossil fuel extraction – including fracking – and “has admitted his candidacy will ‘take more votes’ from the Republican candidate than Biden”.

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