Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is the perfect presidential candidate…for the GOP that is.

RFK, Jr. welcoming Trump's praise is despicable!

Trump allies Michael Flynn and Roger Stone welcome RFK Jr

Robert F. Kennedy has every right to run as a Democrat—just as Donald Trump could suddenly switch parties and announce he is running for the Democratic nomination. But the reality is that despite the Kennedy name long associated with the Democratic party, RFK Jr. would be far more welcomed in today’s Republican party given his serial lying, embrace of outrageous conspiracy theories and the fact that Trump allies like Steve Bannon to Roger Stone  are openly touting him.

For starters, Kennedy later this week will travel to Philadelphia to speak at the very conservative Moms For Liberty convention, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) recently designated as an “anti-government extremist.” As the SPLC explains about this right-wing group that has led the fight to ban books, “The group’s primary goals are to fuel right-wing hysteria and to make the world a less comfortable or safe place for certain students–primarily those who are Black, LGBTQ or who come from LGBTQ families.” In fact, SPLC describes Moms For Liberty as being akin to  the pro-segregationist parent groups that emerged in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education mandating integration in public schools.

Beyond that—as VICE reported last week—Moms for Liberty has ties to some of the Trump supporting extremist groups involved in the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol, including The Proud Boys, QAnon conspiracist and Christian nationalists.

If you were running for the Democratic presidential nomination, is that the place you would go to attract Democratic voters? Of course not. You speak there to attract rank and file Republicans--which is why Trump, DeSantis along with other 2024 GOP presidential candidates are addressing the audience.

Then on Wednesday night during a televised town hall, Kennedy was asked about Donald Trump recently praising him to which he replied: “I'm Proud that President Trump likes me.” Imagine being “proud” to be praised by a white supremacist who for years trafficked in hate, the man charged with 71 felonies and who attempted a coup and incited the Jan 6 terrorist attack?! Do you think any other real Democrat running for President would be “proud” to be praised by Trump?! Would YOU be “proud” to be praised by Trump?

Then there is the long list of Kennedy’s conspiracy theories, where he—like Trump--continues to spew misinformation despite being repeatedly fact checked on everything from gun violence to vaccines to past presidential elections being stolen.

Kennedy is best known for a buffet of anti-vaccine misinformation that he has peddled for decades, such as claiming that mercury in vaccine caused autism. That claim prompted The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the time to issue a two-page explainer debunking these claims--citing nine studies.

Kennedy--like GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene-- compared Covid vaccine mandates to the horrors of The Holocaust. At a 2021 rally, Kennedy declared, “Even in Hitler's Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.”

And like GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, Kennedy is very anti-Dr. Anthony Fauci—a key health advisor to both Trump and President Biden on Covid. In 2021, Kennedy published a book, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” accusing the doctor of promoting "a historic coup d’état against Western democracy."

On gun violence, though, Kennedy has peddled a conspiracy theory that we haven’t even heard from mainstream Republicans, claiming school shootings were somehow linked to anti-depressants. The son of legendary Democrat Robert F. Kennedy stated, “Prior to the introduction of Prozac, we had almost none of these events in our country and we’ve never seen them in human history, where people walk into a schoolroom of children or strangers and start shooting people.”

Just a few weeks ago, Kennedy claimed that chemicals in the water supply were causing boys to become transgender. In support of this outrageous assertion, Kennedy declared that tests on frogs exposed to chemicals in the water supply ended up “forcibly feminize every frog.” He added, “If it’s doing that to frogs, there’s a lot of other evidence that it’s doing it to human beings as well.” (CDC studies reject Kennedy’s claims.)

And as the NY Times detailed, at Kennedy’s recent online conversation with right wing troll Elon Musk, the presidential candidate “repeated a host of false statements,” ranging from false gun ownership statistics in Switzerland in an effort to support his baseless claims on gun violence to Covid being a “bioweapon.”

This helps explain why many of Kennedy’s own family members—including his sisters—have publicly stated they will not be supporting him in his 2024 run for President--instead supporting President Biden.

But who is pumping up RFK, Jr?! Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon loves him, boasting that Kennedy received a “standing ovation” from a “hardcore MAGA” crowd at a recent speaking engagement for floating the idea of a bipartisan Trump-Kennedy ticket. “Bobby Kennedy would be, I think, an excellent choice for President Trump to consider” as a running mate, Bannon said on his "War Room" show. Roger Stone, one of Trump’s staunchest political allies, called Trump-Kennedy a “dream ticket” on the news program "Real America."

Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, on recently tweeted about Kennedy, “I am really starting to like this presidential candidate’s attitude.”  And just a few days ago Tucker Carlson defended Kennedy on his Twitter show.  

It’s true that no candidate can pick who praises them, but a candidate can respond if they want the support of those people. Yet Kennedy has not even denounced Bannon, Flynn or the praise of white supremacist Carlson. That tells us so much about the type of person Kennedy is.

But in reality, it’s far more likely that these Trump boosters are supporting Kennedy because they believe it will somehow hurt President Biden’s re-election efforts. In fact, Trump stalwart Sean Hannity recently said as much on his Fox News show when he welcomed Kennedy to his show, stating that his polling numbers at the time were a  “nightmare” for Joe Biden.

And Trump’s praise of Kennedy on Monday also was very telling in that it mentioned Kennedy’s poll numbers. Trump stated about RFK Jr.: “He’s doing really well!” “I saw a poll, he’s at 22. That’s pretty good, that’s pretty good. Doing very well.”

In reality, Kennedy is getting drubbed by Biden in the polls, dropping from a high of 20 percent in a CNN poll in early May to mid-teens—and even down to eight points in a recent Yahoo News poll. The more Democrats see what Kennedy is about, the more we will likely see his support drop.

When Kennedy loses the Democratic primary, we can expect Trump’s allies to entice him to run as an independent—especially if Trump is the GOP nominee—believing it will peel away votes from Biden. But they may want to rethink this strategy. Few Democrats would support Kennedy in a general, however, given how much the stars of the right are championing him, Kennedy might just find support among GOP voters who don’t like Trump.

---