After running a flailing campaign for president that saw him receive heavy criticism for his anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic rants, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears set to abandon his bid to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party nomination in 2024 and will instead run as an independent.
But there's a big problem with that, noted Jake Lahut for The Daily Beast – RFK Jr. is generally pulling more votes from former President Donald Trump than from Joe Biden in hypothetical polls, due to their like-minded conspiracy views and the fact that Republican donors have propped RFK Jr. up in the hopes he would divide Democrats.
And that means Trump could turn his outrage machine on RFK Jr. as things heat up.
"Now that he is moving to run as an independent in the 2024 general election, putting him in direct competition with Trump for similarly inclined voters, Kennedy’s days of evading MAGA wrath may be numbered," wrote Lahut. "And while Trump has thus far welcomed Kennedy into the mix, an independent run would likely warrant some Trump-sized attacks that could finally undermine Kennedy’s appeal with the anti-vaccine-curious voters fueling his campaign."
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Some pro-Trump activists are already preparing for this possibility, noted Lahut.
“If he wants to run, run. Fine. But if he chooses to run as an independent, then he’s our opponent,” said one source privy to the Trump campaign. The source added that he would be easy for Trump to go after: “He’s not this centrist that he portrays himself to be. He’s a hardline Democrat on a bunch of major issues that run against the Republican Party and specifically MAGA Republicans.”
If RFK Jr. does choose to run, a lot depends on how his efforts to get on the ballot play out; each state has different rules and how many, and which, battleground states he can gain access to could significantly impact his effect on the race.
