Here’s What People Are Saying About RFK Jr. Endorsing Trump
August 23, 2024
“Helps Kamala Harris”…“Good Sign For Democrats”…“Him Getting Out Of The Race Hurts Trump Rather Than Helps.”…“His Negatives Have Skyrocketed. He Doesn’t Have Much Support Left To Throw To Trump…His Endorsement [May] Backfir[e] By Further Confirming Trump As The Candidate Of Kooks, Anti-Vaxxers And Conspiracy Nuts.”
Key Excerpts
USA Today: RFK Jr.’s exit shakes up 2024 race. But how much does his endorsement actually help Trump?
“Given the growing negative perceptions that voters have about Kennedy, his endorsement poses a risk to Trump, who is no stranger to courting controversy.”
New York Times: Kennedy’s Decision Is Unlikely to Change the Race Dramatically
“…An endorsement of former President Donald J. Trump would be unlikely to change the nature of the race…it is hard to know how many of Mr. Kennedy’s supporters will vote in November. They are less likely than others to have voted in 2020, and are also less likely to say they will vote come November. And it has not been clear which candidate”
Forbes: Why RFK Jr.’s Exit From Race Probably Won’t Help Trump Very Much
“Since the Kennedy voters who identify as Republican or Democrat would likely vote for their party’s preferred candidate in a two-way race, most of the votes up for grabs are from independents who prefer Kennedy. Generally, independent voters tend to prefer Harris over Trump (48% to 37% in the NPR/PBS/Marist poll and 33% to 20% in the Economist/YouGov poll when voters who lean independent are factored in), suggesting she’s more likely to pick up a larger share of the independent voters who say they’d back Kennedy.
U.S. News & World Report: RFK Jr. Drops Out and Endorses Trump, Leaving Politicos Confused and Supporters Upset
“Moe Vela, a former senior adviser to Biden, called the announcement interesting but confusing…Regarding the call for his supporters to stay with him, Vela says it’s just further evidence that he was never a serious candidate. He says Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump doesn’t matter because ‘he has no credibility, very few followers, very few supporters,’ noting that his reaction was ‘who and who cares.’ He added that every political candidate plays up endorsements but notes that they ‘truly change very little.’ ‘These types of things really don’t move the dial much historically, traditionally. And certainly with RFK Jr., they will not even register on the radar screen.’ Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said that, regardless, the move will have little real effect on the election. Describing the manner of Kennedy’s exit as ‘like a rock,’ he notes that a recent CBS/YouGov poll had him down to 2%. An average of polls by Real Clear Politics had him peaking at over 16% last November. ‘He can’t transfer many people to Trump, and by dropping out, he ceases to have any significant access to media time. This is another ‘media event’ that will be blown up as a turning point, when it is certainly not that.’”
AXIOS: What’s inside RFK Jr.’s parting gift for Trump
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s much-spoiled exit from the presidential race won’t pack the same pop as if he’d done it earlier this summer. Kennedy averaged 15.5% in general election polls on July 1, per Nate Silver’s model. Now he’s around 4%. Why it matters: Kennedy’s plunging relevancy and bizarre news cycles raises doubts on how many votes he can really move to former President Trump’s column.”
The Bulwark: RFK Jr. and Trump Belong Together
“On one hand, Kennedy’s anticipated endorsement is cause for amusement; it would represent Trump doubling down on ‘weirdness.’ RFK is a guy who, one dark night, dropped a dead bear in Central Park and staged it to look like roadkill resulting from a hit-and-run with a bicyclist. That’s in addition to the rest of his bizarre menagerie of conspiracy theories. Let’s just say that his endorsement isn’t a likely route for attracting independent voters and suburban moms.”
John King on CNN with Anderson Cooper
“I’m going to make the argument that this still helps Kamala Harris. […] We talked about this on your show, Anderson, a long time ago, back in May, I was raising the prospect, are we going to have a 1992 like Perot campaign with a third party candidate getting into double digits? Because he was at 9% in Michigan, 10% in Pennsylvania, 9% in Wisconsin, the other third party candidates well below. This is back in May. Here’s where we were a week or so ago […] — down to 5% in Michigan, 5% in Pennsylvania, 6% of Wisconsin. […] So Robert F Kennedy’s numbers are going down. His fundraising is also going down. So he’s going to step aside. Maybe he endorses Trump, but I would say, from 2020, and 2016 the lesson is, the fewer candidates, the better for the Democrats.”
Marc Thiessen on Fox News with Jesse Watters
Thiessen: “It represents, actually, an opportunity for the Democrats right now because RFK, the threat that he posed to the Democrats was that Democrats and independents who are unhappy with Harris and Biden had a place to go that was not Trump, right? So if you don’t like this administration, but you can’t bring yourself to vote Donald Trump, there was an option on the ballot today, and if he gets out of the race, how many of those people are actually gonna go and vote for Trump if the reason they were supporting him was ’cause they didn’t want to vote for Trump and didn’t want to vote for these guys? So I think in a way, him getting out of the race hurts Trump rather than helps.”
Watters: “That’s a smart answer, but I don’t like it, Thiessen.”
“I don’t think it matters at all. In fact, I think in order to be relevant, you better do something this week…he didn’t run a campaign…it’s not a serious campaign…Ironically, now the question I have is, if Kennedy does endorse Trump, how many states is his name still going to be on the ballot, and he may actually be hurting Trump more than he hurts Harris at the end of the day.”
“It’s not going to make a dramatic difference, because I’m not even sure that Kennedy’s at 5% or 6% anymore. Remember, those polls are a little bit stale too. He’s been falling like a rock for lots of different reasons. […] You can look at this map, and you can look at the independent candidates, and you can say, “Well, if RFK Jr drops out, it’s pretty obvious that 63% of his vote would go to Trump.” You know, it’s never that simple, that is so superficial, which describes most of the analysis. It’s never that simple. And you’re going to find this is very complicated, because people can go to another independent. They can stay on the couch and not vote. They can move in both directions. You have some of them go to Harris, probably more of them go to Trump. But I don’t know that it’s going to amount to all that much additional support for Trump.”
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan on CNN with Kasie Hunt
“It’s pretty disgusting, and I don’t know what the overall impact will be. In Pennsylvania, as an example, I definitely see some folks who were supporters of his. I just don’t know which way they’re going to go. Clearly, he’s leaning towards Trump, but that’s literally because he thinks he’s going to get the right deal from that. It’s clear he’s also looked for a similar deal from the Harris campaign too, and that’s kind of disingenuous, and I don’t think that will resonate with my voters [in Pennsylvania].”
“Now, you might be wondering why exactly Donald Trump’s team would want RFK’s endorsement, given the fact that his campaign has been really plagued by scandal after scandal. In May, he admitted that a parasitic brain worm had entered into his brain and died there and caused the brain fog. In a Vanity Fair, article, he essentially evaded questions about allegations of sexual assault from a former nanny, and then, obviously, we saw what happened with the admission that he left a bear cub in Central Park. But if you look at this race, particularly with Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket, there is concern that this race is going to be decided by razor thin margins.”
“This is a very good sign for the party in power. One of my keys against the White House Party is a significant third party campaign, because that’s always a sign of discontent with governing. And the basis of my keys to the White House is that it’s governing, not campaigning, that counts. You see right there, key number four- third party- the disappearing RFK campaign that wipes out a possible negative key against the incumbent party. I’m not ready to make a prediction yet, but it’s a positive development. Plus, you know, if he does endorse Trump, that just shows the falsification of his whole campaign, which supposedly was based on being an independent voice, not necessarily to either party.
George Will on News Nation with Leland Vittert
Vittert: Does Donald Trump or should Donald Trump– who has been called weird over and over again by Democrats— want the endorsement of someone who is arguably the weirdest man in American politics?
Will: “He’s a man who says he has a worm in his brain and who left a bear’s corpse in Central Park. That’s not usually the person you go to. Robert F. Kennedy has faded as third-party candidates usually do at about the time when things get serious in America politics, so whether or not Robert Kennedy endorses Donald Trump is of tiny significance.”
Posts on X
Larry Sabato @LarrySabato: Rumor: RFK Jr is dropping out Friday and endorsing Trump. IF TRUE (1) Kennedy is barely relevant, at 5% & falling. (2) He can’t transfer much support, esp. to Trump. His backers will splinter. (3) RFK Jr makes Trump-Vance ticket even weirder.
G. Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris: About Kennedy dropping out: Our polling average model looks at the difference in polls that do and do not include him as an option. In this adjustment RFK takes 1.3 points from Harris and 1.5 from Trump. RFK dropout net effect is small — reduces Harris’s margin from +3.3 to +3.1
@Geff Garin geoffgarin: RFK Jr’s vote has dwindled to 2-3% in our polls and his negatives have skyrocketed. He doesn’t have much support left to throw to Trump, and I can easily imagine his endorsement backfiring by further confirming Trump as the candidate of kooks, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy nuts.
@David Frum davidfrum: The RFK Jr campaign was a $-multimillion gambit by Trump donors to divert poorly informed votes from the Democratic ticket. The scheme backfired when RFK Jr diverted poorly informed Republicans instead. ABC now reporting the scheme about to be axed. Funny or sad?
@Dave Weigel daveweigel: Been asking Dems why they didn’t indulge Kennedy when he started asking for a meeting… their calculation was 1) he was always a MAGA plant and was never going to endorse Harris, 2) even if he did endorse, they’d be explaining why they suddenly embraced a conspiracy theorist.
@Jefrey Pollock jefpollock: Buy-bye RFK. You have discredited yourself over and over. Your unfavorables have skyrocketed as voters learned who you are. And your vote share has become an insignificant nuisance. You will have no impact on this election.
Dan Pfeiffer @danpfeiffer: The fact that RFk Jr sold his endorsement to the highest bidder is going to dramatically undermine his ability to convince his supporters to follow him to Trump