The US Presidential election became bipolar as independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign for the White House and endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, a move that could give the former president a modest boost from Kennedy’s supporters.
Hours after the announcement, Kennedy joined Trump onstage at an Arizona rally, where the crowd burst into “Bobby!” cheers. During his address to the rally, Kennedy said his internal polls suggested that his presence in the race would hamper Trump's campaign and help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. However, recent public polls don’t indicate 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 our children” as among the reasons he would try to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states.
At his event in Pheonix, Kennedy said, “These are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump.”
Meanwhile, he also clarified that he wasn’t formally ending his bid saying that his supporters could continue to back him in majority of states where they are unlikely to sway the outcome. Kennedy took steps to withdraw his candidacy in at least two states, Arizona and Pennsylvania late this week, however, election officials in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin said it would be too late for him to take his name off the ballot even if he wanted to do so.
Kennedy revealed that he came up to the decision following 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.” Kennedy suggested Trump offered him a job if he returned to the White House, but neither he nor Trump provided details.
(With AP inputs)
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