Republicans are in the process of trying to strategize Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s effort to secure the Democratic Party presidential nomination after he announced he was running against President Joe Biden.
And though Biden leads in polling, RFK Jr. has just received an endorsement of sorts — from the GOP’s leading candidate for the nomination, former President Donald Trump.
During a brief appearance on “The Howie Carr Show” Monday, Trump offered some praise for the Kennedy legacy.
“Just hang in,” Trump advised Kennedy. “He’s been very nice to me, I’ve actually had a very nice relationship with him over the years. He’s a very smart guy, and a good guy.”
“He’s a common sense guy, and so am I. So, whether you’re conservative or liberal, common sense is common sense,” Trump said of his potential rival. “A lot of what I run on is common sense. He’s doing really well, I saw a poll, he’s at 22. That’s pretty good! That’s pretty good, doing very well.”
Kennedy launched his campaign in April. In addition, self-help guru Marianne Williamson is also running for the Democratic nomination, but she’s only polling in the mid-single digits.
Initially perceived as a highly unlikely contender against Biden and largely disregarded by the Democratic Party due to his views on vaccines and other matters being labeled as conspiratorial, Kennedy has seen a significant rise in the polls by mid-June. His double-digit polling numbers have prompted a reassessment of his viability as a candidate in the 2024 Democratic primary.
“The more chatter about Kennedy is just bad for Biden,” said Brian Seitchik, a GOP operative who worked on Trump’s campaign previously but is no longer supporting him, in an interview with The Hill. “There’s an alternative out there with a serious name.”
“Certainly, Trump understands how to get folks to chase the rabbit around the track,” Seitchik told The Hill. “Any attention for Kennedy is good for Republicans.”
Trump supporter and GOP operative Roger Stone, who was pardoned by the former president after being convicted in 2019 of obstructing a congressional probe into Russian election interference, noted during an April podcast that “incumbent presidents who run for re-election but who are challenged in the primaries by a significant challenger, even though they survive, in almost every case, they are defeated.”
He went on to cite Jimmy Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980 after Carter was challenged in the primary by Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.
“I think you’re going to see the same thing here. I think it’ll be very rough within the current architecture of the Democratic Party for Robert Kennedy to beat Joe Biden. If I were a Democrat, I’d certainly vote for him. If I had any money, I’d send him a contribution, but I don’t,” Stone said in April.
“I think he is a great American. He’s a man of enormous courage,” Stone added of Kennedy. “He’s taken a lot of crap from the American political establishment for his outspoken and I think effective views. And I think it will help in the end soften Joe Biden up for his defeat by Donald Trump in the general election.”
