In an online outburst that began on Friday night, former president Trump attacked independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling his support a “wasted protest vote” and claiming that he would “even take Biden over Junior.”
The Republican Party is growing increasingly worried about the wild card independent, who has already been a headache for the Democrats due to the votes he has taken away from President Joe Biden, and who could do the same to Trump in November.
Trump sought to highlight policy areas where Kennedy appeared more left-leaning in a series of tweets on his Truth Social platform, in which he referred to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “Democrat ‘Plant'” strategically put to aid Biden’s reelection campaign.
It was necessary to install RFK Jr., a Democrat “Plant” and a radical left-wing liberal, so that Crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, could be re-elected. A vote for Junior would be a wasted protest vote; the outcome would depend on whether Republicans were aware of the full truth about him, but it would lean against the Democrats if they were. “Junior” is completely opposed to guns, highly anti-environmental (to the point that he makes the Green New Scammers look like moderates), heavily pro-taxation and open-border policies, and against the military and veterans.
Although Kennedy’s views on several issues are diverse, his background as an environmental lawyer gives him a clear leftward lean on certain environmental policies. For example, he has called for a permanent export ban on natural gas, but he has also spoken out against the president’s clean energy subsidies. Kennedy is seen as a potential challenge to Biden’s capacity to unite the party’s support in the 2024 election due to his apparently environmentally friendly views and his traditionally Democratic-aligned surname.
The GOP, and Trump in particular, are finding themselves on the offense as a result of Kennedy’s ability to sway votes away from both candidates.
On Wednesday, Quinnipiac released a poll of registered voters showing that 16% of them supported Kennedy, 37% supported Trump and 37% Biden, and 3% supported Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent Cornel West. Nearly half of Republican voters (44 percent) had a positive impression of Kennedy, while barely eleven percent of Democratic voters did so, suggesting that RFK Jr. is more well-liked among Republicans than Democrats.
The renegade independent has been a point of contention between the two candidates as November draws near, and Trump’s campaign has strongly denied RFK Jr.’s assertions that he has approached him about running for president.