CNN Central News & Network–ITDC India Epress/ITDC News Bhopal: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his independent campaign for president on Friday and endorsed Donald Trump, a late-stage shakeup of the presidential race that could give the former president a modest boost from Kennedy’s supporters.
Kennedy said his internal polls had shown that his presence in the race would hurt Trump and help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, though recent public polls don’t provide a clear indication that he is having an outsize impact on support for either major-party candidate.
Kennedy cited free speech, the war in Ukraine and a war on the children as among the reasons he would try to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states.
However, he made clear that he wasn’t formally ending his bid and said his supporters could continue to back him in the majority of states where they are unlikely to sway the outcome. Kennedy took steps to withdraw his candidacy in at least two states late this week, Arizona and Pennsylvania, but in the battlegrounds of Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, election officials said it’s too late for him to take his name off the ballot even if he wants to do so.
Kennedy said his actions followed conversations with Trump over the past few weeks. He cast their alliance as a “unity party”, an arrangement that would “allow us to disagree publicly and privately and seriously”.
Hours after Kennedy made his announcement in Phoenix, Trump was to hold a rally in neighboring Glendale. Trump’s campaign teased that he would be joined by a special guest, though neither campaign responded to messages about whether Kennedy would be that guest.