Allies of former President Donald Trump such as Steve Bannon had encouraged Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to enter the 2024 presidential race as a means to harm the prospects of President Joe Biden.
However, Salon's Amanda Marcotte writes that this move now looks like it could backfire after RFK Jr. announced his own independent candidacy for the presidency that could siphon votes away from Trump.
In fact, Marcotte believes that Trump should "be scared" of being dragged into a "crackpot fight" with RFK Jr., who for years has peddled bogus conspiracy theories casting doubt on the safety of vaccines.
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"The slice of voters Trump and Kennedy could be competing over aren't defined by political beliefs that map neatly onto concepts like 'liberal' or 'conservative,'" she argues. "Instead, they're fighting over the crank vote: People who are addicted to gobbling down kooky, bizarre and above all, false information. The QAnon crowd, in other words."
Marcotte concludes by arguing that Trump being brought down by losing votes to RFK Jr. would be a fitting fate for a Republican Party that has stoked conspiracy theory culture for decades.
"Republicans have spent decades increasingly leveraging disinformation and tapping into the ego needs of conspiracy theorists, all to retain support their unpopular policies can't get them," she writes. "But the problem with dealing with kooks is they are unpredictable and hard to control."
