What Will RFK Jr. Say on Friday?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Aug. 22, 2024) — According to 2024 independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s campaign website, the candidate “will address the nation live on Friday about the present historical moment and his path forward in a livestreamed press conference.”

Kennedy’s speech is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. PDT/2:00 p.m. EDT from Arizona.

The nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, RFK Jr. began his candidacy as a Democrat but, like fellow Democrat challengers Marianne Williamson and Rep. Dean Phillips, was precluded by the Democrat Party’s decision to hold primary debates with Joe Biden.

Kennedy was also arguably presented in a negative light by the press while Biden’s candidacy, which ended precipitately on July 21 with his withdrawal from the race, was reported more favorably at the time.

Multiple media reports, as well as “Infowars” host Alex Jones, citing sources on Tuesday, suggest Kennedy will suspend his campaign and endorse 45th president and 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump on Friday, then appear with him at a campaign rally.

Kennedy’s running-mate, tech entrepreneur and attorney Nicole Shanahan, first suggested in an interview Tuesday she and Kennedy might endorse the Trump ticket “because we draw votes from Trump, or we draw somehow more votes from Trump” and that the “risk” of a Harris/Walz presidency might prove unacceptable to them.

“When asked about the role Kennedy could play in a future Trump administration,” CNN further reported Tuesday, “Shanahan speculated that her running mate may be open to taking a role as secretary of health and human services in a future administration, and said she has ‘high hopes’ he’ll be able to oversee the department.”

On Thursday morning, NBC New reported, “Kennedy plans to end his independent presidential campaign this week and endorse former President Donald Trump, according to two sources. For weeks, Kennedy’s campaign has floated his interest in a Cabinet position in a future Trump White House while publicly denying he would accept it.”

At the Republican National Committee convention last month, it was reported by The New York Times that a face-to-face meeting took place between the two men but that the Kennedy campaign denied its candidate was contemplating withdrawing from the race. Also according to the outlet, Tucker Carlson facilitated the meeting.

As an independent, Kennedy has struggled to have his name placed on state ballots across the country. According to his campaign website:

The Kennedy-Shanahan campaign has collected more signatures than any presidential candidate in American history, collecting more than 1 million signatures. The campaign has now collected the signatures needed for ballot access in 47 states, totaling 517 electoral votes, 96% of the 538 total electoral votes nationwide.

The Kennedy-Shanahan ticket is officially on the ballot in 22 states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia.

The campaign has submitted its signatures in 21 states — Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., and now Alabama, Arizona, and Montana.

It has collected enough signatures for ballot access in 4 states — Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and North Dakota.

On Thursday, Trump will visit Cochise County, AZ and deliver a rally speech on Friday at 4:00 p.m. Mountain Time in Glendale (Arizona).

Kennedy is founder and chairman-on-leave of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), which focuses on public policy as it pertains to health, particularly as it concerns mandatory vaccinations for children, environmental concerns and, more recently, government censorship.

The press has vilified Kennedy for his questioning of the CDC-recommended childhood vaccine schedule, which has grown exponentially following the passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 which extended legal protection to vaccine manufacturers if injuries or death were claimed as a result.

Many such claims have been made but compensated sparsely by the government’s CICP program.

A “Boing Boing” article published Friday contended, depicting Kennedy in a tinfoil hat:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has become 2024’s official pariah after trying – and failing – to sleaze his way into Kamala Harris’ sphere.

The delusional third-party candidate, who’s made a name for himself as a prominent conspiracy theorist, approached the Harris campaign last week in hopes of a deal: he would drop out of the race and endorse Harris in exchange for a job in her administration if she wins.

But Kennedy was met with crickets. (Better than worms!) The same crickets that greeted the coreless opportunist when he tried the same stunt with ex-president Donald Trump during the Republican National Convention. But even the convicted felon didn’t want him.

In an interview with Fox & Friends Thursday morning, co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked Trump his reaction to reports that Kennedy might endorse him, to which Trump repeated his previous statement that he “would be honored” to receive the endorsement and that he has known Kennedy “for a long time.”

“He’s a different kind of a guy,” Trump said of Kennedy, and “a very smart guy.”