In a new interview, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s vice presidential running mate Nicole Shanahan dropped all pretenses of running a successful campaign and revealed they were considering suspending their campaign to better help Donald Trump. As the Washington Post reports, this comes after Trump has signaled trading RFK Jr.’s endorsement for a job in his administration.
“After months of overt campaign finance violations, hijacking fringe political parties, and selling his vice presidency to the highest bidder, RFK Jr.’s campaign has finally said the quiet part out loud,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “Even worse than this admission is the fact that they’ve effectively been bought by Trump. This is one of the most blatant and public briberies we’ve seen in a long time.”
Washington Post: RFK Jr.’s running mate drops the pretense about helping Trump
Aaron Blake
08/20/24
Key sections:
- For as long as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been running for president, Democrats have cast him as a stalking horse for Donald Trump. But Kennedy has consistently denied playing the role of spoiler.
- But now Kennedy’s vice-presidential running mate, Nicole Shanahan, has dropped any pretense. She indicated in a new podcast interview that the Kennedy campaign would prefer to help Trump than see Vice President Kamala Harris win the presidency. And she even floated the idea that she and Kennedy could drop out of the race to assist in that outcome.
- “There’s two options that we’re looking at,” Shanahan said. “One is staying in, forming that new party. But we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and [Tim] Walz presidency, because we draw … somehow more votes from Trump.
- Shanahan’s comments also come, it bears emphasizing, shortly after it became evident that Kennedy was suddenly hurting Trump.
- She also played up the idea of Kennedy serving in the Trump administration and even of her falling back on a run for office in California. (Trump responded to Shanahan’s comments by telling CNN that he would entertain giving Kennedy a job in exchange for Kennedy’s dropping out and endorsing him.)
- All of which suggests that if Kennedy does drop out, it could help Trump on the margins by pushing those Trump-inclined voters toward him.
- And just two weeks ago, Kennedy reached out to this supposedly nefarious and underhanded Harris campaign to discuss trading an endorsement of her for an administration job.
- The Kennedy campaign seems to realize that it is listing badly, and they’re suddenly in the bargaining phase.
- The Harris campaign had almost no motivation to cut such a deal. But Trump suddenly does.
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