CHICAGO — A couple blocks outside of the Democratic National Convention’s United Center, a few passersby stopped to watch a lip-syncing man dance atop a bus plastered with a meme-ified, sunglasses-wearing image of independent president candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
But was this little more than a bizarre swan song?
Earlier Tuesday, Kennedy’s vice presidential running mate, Nicole Shanahan, told a podcast that the Kennedy campaign is considering quitting the race and throwing its support behind Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
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No matter for the bus promoting the “Kennedy Across America Tour” — not an official campaign vehicle.
Its operators proceeded with heckling Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris. The bus played an original, 15-second song accusing Harris of being “afraid” and “hiding” from the press.
“Is the DNC Democratic?” the song starts, and it ends with the lyric, “Is it ‘we the people?’ Or ‘we the party?’”
Damien Nichols with the “Kennedy Across America Tour” isn’t personally a fan of the Harris song but said “it's just one of those things. You make music. You make flyers. You do stuff.”
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Nichols said he won’t necessarily vote for Trump, even if the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign backs the former president. Nichols said he will vote with the campaign that “feels like the closest embodiment of the spirit” of the Kennedy campaign.
“If Bobby supports and goes in with one of the major parties, he's stepped across a line I can't cross, not tactically,” Nichols told Raw Story at the intersection of Jackson Boulevard and Wood Street where the bus was parked. “If I still get the sense that he is sincere and that was him making a decision he thought was the right one, I can respect him in that. I just can't necessarily go with him there.”
Nichols said the bus is focused on “raising enough money so that we can keep driving across the country until Election Day.”
Vanessa Eggert, a Kennedy campaign volunteer canvassing and collecting signatures to get Kennedy on the presidential ballot in Illinois and Indiana, said she was “excited” to hop on the bus.
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“I know who I want, and I know that he represents people, and that's what we need, healing and unity. Not all this name calling,” Eggert said of Kennedy.
Kennedy is polling at 3.2 percent nationwide, according to The Hill. The same poll has Harris with a 4.1 percent lead over Trump, nationally, if Kennedy stays in the race.
The Kennedy campaign and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to Raw Story’s questions.
