The campaign of former United States President and candidate of the Republican Party, Donald Trump received a boost on Friday as the presidential hopeful, Robert F Kennedy Jr pulled out as independent candidate to back Trump’s campaign.
Seventy-year-old Kennedy who was a democrat for most of his life and the scion of the Kennedy dynasty, said the principles that had led him to leave the party had now compelled him to throw his support behind Trump.
Kennedy Jr however insisted in a press conference in Arizona that he would not drop out, but rather keep his name on the ballot in the states where it will not affect the race, BBC reports.
Responding to Kennedy’s support, Trump described the endorsement as “very nice… he’s a great guy”, while Democratic rival Kamala Harris said she would “earn” the support of Kennedy voters.
The decision effectively brings to an end a campaign fueled by Mr Kennedy’s anti-vax views, and coloured by stories of dead bears and brain worms. His polling has slumped from a high of double figures as funds and national coverage dried up.
Kennedy ran a high-profile advertisement during the Super Bowl in February that invoked his father, US Senator Robert F Kennedy, and uncle, President John F Kennedy, which drew outrage from much of his family.
Disappointed by his brother’s decision, Kerry Kennedy described the endorsement of Trump as a “betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.”
However, Kennedy Jr stressed that Trump’s resolve to end the war in Ukraine by negotiating with Russia alone would justify his support for his campaign.
“There are still many issues and approaches on which we continue to have very serious differences. But we are aligned on other key issues.”
He disclosed that he would remove his name from 10 states where his presence would be a “spoiler” to Trump’s effort. He has already withdrawn from the battleground states of Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Kennedy said he had launched his campaign “as a Democrat, the party of my father, my uncle… the champions of the Constitution” but left because “it had become the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big money”.
He blamed “media control” and his former party for his decision to suspend his campaign, adding, “In my heart I no longer believe I have a realistic path to victory in the face of relentless and systematic censorship”.
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