Democrats are apparently so apprehensive about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of former President Donald Trump final week that the celebration’s “Conflict Room” has despatched out a large listing of speaking factors towards him — one week later.
Final Friday, after the Democratic Nationwide Conference resulted in Chicago, Illinois, Kennedy introduced that he could be suspending his marketing campaign in battleground states and endorsing Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris. He cited the truth that Harris had not been voted on by anybody, however merely chosen by the celebration bosses, and refrained from the voters and the media. He additionally famous that the Democrats’ had executed every thing doable to exclude him from the poll.
In response to a ballot launched Friday by Rasmussen Reviews, 34% of seemingly voters consider Kennedy’s endorsement makes it extra seemingly that Trump will win, versus 16% who assume it’s much less seemingly, and 43% who say it would make little distinction.
The Democratic Nationwide Committee (DNC) despatched a protracted listing of speaking factors towards Kennedy on Friday, underneath the title “Whales, Worms, and Bears: Trump Spends the Week Proudly owning RFK Jr.’s Baggage.” Right here is the entire e mail, in full, with unique emphasis.
Whales, Worms, and Bears: Trump Spends the Week Proudly owning RFK Jr.’s Baggage
“Trump’s Embrace of RFK Jr. Glues the GOP to Kennedy’s Years of Babbling Nonsense.” … “[Trump] and His Marketing campaign Actually Do Need to Inherit All of the Baggage that Comes with [RFK Jr.]”… “A Political Danger In Addition To The Model Danger Of Simply Being Bizarre”… “The Individuals Round Trump Are Utterly Loopy. Including Kennedy to the Crew is the Good Distillation of This” … “ [Kennedy] Has the Skill to Actually Flip Off A Lot of the Voters”
Key Excerpts
MSNBC: Trump embraces RFK Jr. and all of his baggage—together with the whale juice
Chris Hayes: “Kennedy is his personal particular type of problematic. And so if Trump goes to tie himself to a man like that, he and his marketing campaign actually do should inherit all the luggage that comes with him. […] He needed the world to see him telling Roseanne Barr about how he was going to stage successful and run bike versus bear accent in Central Park. Bear story has obtained nothing on the whale story. […] That’s, properly, that’s simply the tip of the iceberg. With regards to Kennedy and useless animals. […] Far, way more critically, Robert Kennedy has promoted constantly false, harmful, and deranged conspiracy theories. He’s most likely one of the crucial outstanding anti—vaccine activists on the planet. It was he— nearly chief amongst everybody who helped unfold lethal lies about vaccination that in the end value the lives— and this isn’t hyperbole— actually tons of of tons of of hundreds of our fellow Individuals throughout covid. A whole lot of hundreds of individuals died who didn’t must as a result of that they had been advised lies about vaccines.”
Boston Globe: Column: Bobby Kennedy Jr., we obtained to know ye all too properly: Camelot’s clown prince leaves the race in a revealing method.
“Kennedy’s actual agenda isn’t about advancing a set of points. It’s about securing unmerited prominence. He needs to be seen, to be thought-about essential, to be remarked upon — and he’s keen to squander his final reputational remnant in that pursuit. Like a fairgoer taking a journey in a hot-air balloon, RFK Jr. hoped to make use of his household title to ascend to an elevation he couldn’t obtain on his personal…However he’s additionally an oddity, oddity, oddity, oddity, oddity, oddity, ODD-i-ty. Voters got here to understand that in a 16-month marketing campaign…The information thus far is that Camelot’s clown prince shall be an honorary cochair of Trump’s transition crew. That might be an ideal match: an empty position for an empty go well with.”
The New Republic: Trump’s Ugly, Shameless New Provide to RFK Jr. Palms Dems a Huge Weapon
“For Democrats, educating voters about this explicit Trump menace is the proper public-spirited factor to do. However there’s additionally a political opening right here. Democrats say they’ll tie Kennedy’s fringe positions to Trump, and if that’s the case, there’s a chance to speak to key voter teams the hazard a Trump-Kennedy alliance poses. […] Kennedy’s renown may assist Democrats right here,’ [Matt Bennett, an executive vice president at the Democratic group Third Way] famous: ‘One problem is making voters care that the folks round Trump are utterly loopy. Including Kennedy to the crew is the proper distillation of this.’ […] Kennedy—the self-styled heroic environmentalist and scourge of company energy—may be counted on to not increase a fuss about Trump’s corrupt bargains with these monetary elites on causes that Kennedy professes to care deeply about, all in alternate for reaping the rewards in boosted affect himself.”
CNN: CNN Information Central with Boris Sanchez
Mallory McMorrow: “I believe he pulls extra help from Donald Trump […] I stated then that RFK Jr. is simply Donald Trump with a Kennedy title slapped on him. […] And also you have a look at the place we’re months later, and he’s falling in line. He’s endorsed Donald Trump. He’s selling harmful conspiracy theories. The extra that we study him because it pertains to dropping a useless bear off in Central Park, or apparently chopping a whale head off, it’s simply— you discuss character. It’s not high quality character. And I believe that we see who he’s, and I’m not apprehensive about him pulling help from the Vice President.
MSNBC: Alex Wagner Tonight with Ayman Mohyeldin
Tim Miller: “I believe that plenty of the comfortable RFK help those who have been the so-called ‘double haters,’ Kamala has type of wolfed them up over the past month, and that explains plenty of her ballot motion, actually. And so the remaining RFK voters have been fairly Trumpy and conspiratorial and anti institution. […] What I don’t perceive goes to the following step of claiming that RFK goes to play a key position within the subsequent administration. RFK advised Tucker, I suppose, that he’s one of many leaders on the transition crew for Trump if he wins, which is fairly scary, that I believe has the power to essentially flip off plenty of the voters you have been speaking about earlier— these type of suburban, ex-urban, former Republican swing voters within the Atlanta suburbs that he wants. And I simply when you’re a type of voters, you’re extra conventional, old-fashioned Republican, and also you’re taking a look at this group, and it’s Vance— who doesn’t care about Ukraine in any respect— and it’s bizarre RFK with the mind worm and the vaccine conspiracies, and it’s Tulsi who’s like, Putin’s primary fan in Congress. What are they? They’re not providing something to that voter. And so I do assume that that’s a political danger along with type of the model danger of simply being bizarre, sure.”
Salon: Donald Trump’s embrace of RFK Jr. exposes the marketing campaign’s QAnon technique
“Trump has a stench of desperation to him, as Harris rises within the polls. Nonetheless, it’s not initially clear what an alliance with Kennedy does for Trump. Though he and Vance maintain insisting they’re ‘regular’ and ‘not bizarre,’ right here they’re, lavishing consideration on a person who claimed to have a mind worm and by his personal account as soon as dumped a useless bear cub in Central Park. The selection is one more indicator of how a lot the Trump marketing campaign’s technique will depend on interesting to fringe constituencies in hopes that they prove simply sufficient creeps and conspiracy theorists to eke out a win within the swing states.”
USA At present: Column: Donald Trump, JD Vance and RFK Jr.? ‘Bizarre’ doesn’t do justice to this loony trifecta.
“Trump’s embrace of RFK Jr. glues the GOP to Kennedy’s years of babbling nonsense. The Trump marketing campaign can hem and haw and say the 2 sides don’t agree on every thing, however good luck threading that needle. […] Hope you want measles and polio, America, as a result of that’s what the Trump/(Vance)/Kennedy ticket has cookin’!”
Politico Playbook: 3 Trump transition points that aren’t Undertaking 2025
“This time, the problematic personnel scenario includes Trump’s anointing of RFK and Gabbard with gold-plated titles on the transition crew. […] And one Trump insider advised Playbook that the honorary co-chairs are simply that — figureheads who received’t be doing a lot. […] ‘Is RFK going to have a job in staffing on the EPA?’ [Tim] Chapman continued. ‘Well being and Human Companies? Is he going to possibly lead a type of businesses? The CIA? … I might not be snug with both of them main any company.’”
USA At present: Column: RFK Jr., Bobby Kennedy was every thing you aren’t. You’ve betrayed your father’s legacy.
“That’s the query each scholar of the Kennedys is asking who remembers how a lot you adored your namesake father – and the way a lot your father’s life centered round three totems: the Democratic Occasion, the Kennedy household and God. You could have deserted all of them. […] Now you’re embracing that very right-wing stuff, to the purpose the place almost all of your siblings felt the necessity Friday to denounce your staining of what the Kennedy title stands for […] Are you actually so determined for consideration – or a job – that you’re doing this? Is it resenting the highlight that has shined in your sisters, brothers and cousins, and reasoning that this radical turnaround is the way in which to make your personal headlines? Or is it merely in search of some option to measure as much as the celebrity you inherited by advantage of your title? Regardless of the motivation, the end result, as your siblings say, is unhappy.”
MSNBC: Opinion: RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have joined Trump’s marketing campaign. It might backfire.
“Kennedy and Gabbard don’t characterize important Democratic constituencies, nevertheless. They’re fringe, idiosyncratic political gamers who’ve lengthy had supporters on the proper. Trump’s tent didn’t essentially get larger; in reality, it is a potential narrowing of his coalition, as there’s an opportunity that, by bringing Gabbard and Kennedy underneath his wing, Trump alienates extra voters than he wins over. […] However it’s laborious to foretell how persuasive Kennedy shall be in persuading his supporters to forged their ballots for Trump. It’s believable {that a} important proportion of his remaining die-hard followers have been disinclined to ever vote for both of the 2 main events. It’s additionally believable that a lot of his help was by no means going to materialize on the poll field since his marketing campaign hinged on the concept of distrust of American establishments. As an alternative of profitable extra independents, there’s even an opportunity Trump takes a ding amongst such voters for Kennedy’s most excessive views and for lending credence to the Democrats’ seemingly efficient assault that the GOP is hobbled by weirdness and creepiness.”
New York Instances: Opinion: Tulsi Gabbard, Robert Kennedy and Trump’s ‘Recreation of Thrones’
“Donald Trump has surrounded himself with ideological shape-shifters […] On Tuesday, The Instances reported that Trump plans to call Tulsi Gabbard and Robert Kennedy Jr., who each lately endorsed him, as honorary co-chairs of his presidential transition crew. […] Now, Kennedy blows plenty of smoke, however the concept Trump would make America wholesome once more is an excessive amount of to take. […] However they don’t care concerning the apparent contradictions. They’re taking part in the sport.”
MSNBC: José Díaz-Balart Reviews
Zerlina Maxwell: “I don’t assume essentially they’re going to assist Donald Trump very a lot. I believe that Donald Trump help is baked in, and the Vice President and Tim Walz, their job proper now could be to attempt to seize individuals who consider in democracy […] So I don’t assume an anti-vaxx extremists like Robert Kennedy goes to attract out Republicans who weren’t already supporting Donald Trump. […] Of us like Robert Kennedy each, like Tulsi Gabbard, they’re an enormous distraction from the principal undeniable fact that what we’re combating for on this election is democracy. […] So Robert F Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard, they’ll endorse whoever they need. I don’t assume it’s going to have an enormous electoral affect.”
The Every day Beast: Trump and RFK Jr.: a Political Marriage Made in Heaven—or Hell?
“‘Kennedy voters hate Trump,’ [Democratic pollster Celinda Lake] advised the Every day Beast. Kamala Harris has already picked up half of his help. Endorsing Trump is ‘a elementary violation of RFK Jr’s model’ […] ‘They’re each prolific liars who attraction to kooks,’ says [Jack Pitney, a professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College.] ‘… Low-information voters would say, ‘I’m for him,’ however the numbers are so small, they’re nearly negligible.’ […] ‘Not many Democrats shall be fooled into voting for him,’ says Elaine Kamarck with the Brookings Establishment’s governing program. […] It’s laborious to see what’s in it for Trump to have a Kennedy by his facet apart from the psychic victory of getting received over one of many energy names of his era. There’s little that would go proper and lots that may go improper when two self-centered narcissists are vying for consideration on a crowded marketing campaign path.”
The Dispatch: Why RFK Jr.’s Trump Endorsement Makes Democrats Comfortable
“‘If you wish to have that endorsement, I’m completely completely satisfied so that you can,’ stated Karen Finney, a Democratic operative, on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday. Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy who spoke on the Democratic Nationwide Conference, tweeted dismissively about his cousin’s resolution to drop out of the race, saying ‘the best resolution of all time simply obtained simpler.’”
MSNBC: The Final Phrase with Lawrence O’Donnell
Lawrence O’Donnell: “Robert Kennedy Jr., the Jeffrey Dahmer of the animal kingdom has horrified his household nearly as a lot as Jeffrey Dahmer horrified his household by endorsing essentially the most horrifying Republican presidential nominee in historical past, the one president who was extra of a legal within the White Home than Richard Nixon, who Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s father tried to maintain out of the presidency by working towards him, till Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, which immediately and it appeared completely, created a beatific glow across the title Robert Kennedy. A reputation which his son has now absolutely disgraced. Robert Kennedy Jr.’s youthful sister, Kerry Kennedy, stated, quote, ‘I’m outraged and disgusted by my brother’s gaudy and obscene embrace of Donald Trump and his flagrant and inexplicable effort to desecrate and trample and set hearth to my father’s reminiscence.’ […] I learn an article by Kurt Anderson printed in The Atlantic this weekend, through which Kurt Anderson describes shopping for cocaine from his faculty classmate Bobby Kennedy after they have been each freshmen at Harvard Faculty in 1972. As a result of Donald Trump favors the demise penalty for drug sellers, the demise penalty for doing what Bobby Kennedy did […] Given that you simply offered cocaine in your youth, how do you are feeling about Trump’s advocacy of a regime which may have resulted in your personal execution at age 19?”
The Guardian: RFK Jr is now political roadkill – what does it imply for Harris and Trump?
“…does any of this imply that these Kennedy voters, whoever they’re, will flock to Trump? And is Trump now a shoo-in for the White Home? The reply appears to be: most likely not. The polling boffins at 538 reckon the Kennedy exit and Trump endorsement can have ‘minimal affect on the race.’ Ruth Igielnik, a ballot professional on the New York Instances, says it’s ‘unlikely to vary the character of the race […] The reality is that Kennedy’s star had been on the wane for some time. […] [His endorsement] is unlikely to quell the accusations that Republicans are “bizarre”, it at the least provides Kennedy one thing to do.”
MSNBC: Morning Joe
Larry Sabato: “He has been dropping like a rock ever since Kamala Harris obtained in. […] Individuals who assume that, as a result of he’s endorsing Trump, he can simply transfer that 2% into Trump’s column. They don’t know a lot about politics. It doesn’t work that method. It’s not going to work that method. […] I can consider, , a number of 100 issues that might have extra affect than RFK Jr dropping out of the marketing campaign and endorsing Trump. […] However frankly, it’s embarrassing.”
Jonathan Lemire: Kennedy’s endorsement was sharply criticized by his personal siblings, by different members of his household. It is inconceivable that it strains as much as the politics of his father and uncle. Reverend Al Sharpton, these of us who’ve been in New York for a very long time keep in mind he was— for some time— was a fairly like reputable concern within the environmental motion, and the way somebody who really actually cared about local weather change might have thrown his lot in with Donald Trump is simply unfathomable. However what do we expect right here? That is, as Professor Sabato simply stated, a marketing campaign that was already cratering, even earlier than the revelation that he dumped a useless bear in Central Park. Do we expect that is going to matter in any respect?
Rev. Al Sharpton: I don’t. I believe that [this endorsement] is not going to matter. […] We had him at Nationwide Motion Community and labored with him, however then he simply obtained increasingly more weird. After which when the anti- vaccine factor occurred, it actually prompted a separation with some folks, significantly amongst black church buildings, the place a few of the anti-vaccine folks have been getting on us that have been giving vaccines to folks in our communities. After which he simply went on and on and on, from the worm and the mind to the bear in Central Park.”
Pod Save America: Why are so most of the skeletons in RFK Jr.’s closet animal skeletons?
Jon Favreau: “By far the most important information about RFK proper now, includes one more useless animal. In a newly unearthed interview with City and Nation in 2012 his daughter Kick Kennedy, she stated that when she was a child, her dad minimize off the top of a useless whale with a chainsaw and tied it to the highest of their minivan to convey it house. Key quote– when you wanted a quote– ‘Each time we accelerated on the freeway whale juice would pour into the home windows of the automobile, and it was the rankest factor on the planet. All of us had plastic baggage over our heads with mouth holes minimize out, and other people on the freeway have been giving us the finger, however that was simply regular each day stuff for us.’ […] I would really like you to rank the whale head, the useless bear cub and the mind worm so as of which creeps you out essentially the most.
USA At present: Environmental group requires RFK Jr. to be investigated over useless whale story
“An environmental advocacy group is asking for former unbiased candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be investigated after a 2012 interview resurfaced through which his daughter stated he used a chainsaw to chop off a useless whale’s head. […] The Middle for Organic Range Motion Fund despatched a letter Monday to the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claiming that it’s unlawful to own “any a part of an animal, useless or alive” underneath the Marine Mammal Safety Act and the Endangered Species Act, in response to the letter obtained by USA At present. […] “Given Mr. Kennedy’s reckless disregard for the 2 most essential marine conservation legal guidelines in the USA, we ask that NOAA take into account all acceptable civil and legal penalties as properly,” they stated.
The Kennedy endorsement was adopted earlier this week by an endorsement for Trump this week by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who backs Trump’s overseas coverage of nonintervention and “peace by energy.”
