GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Three weeks after abandoning his independent presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has become a ubiquitous campaigner for Donald Trump, urging his own faithful supporters to side with the former president who said he would give Kennedy a job if he returned to the White House.
Kennedy is touring with Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman who has built her own following on the right.
Many of the people who turned out for the protest in suburban Phoenix on Saturday night were already staunch Trump supporters. Some, like Jacob Cutler, wore clothing from Kennedy’s now-defunct campaign. Cutler, an avid Kennedy supporter, is convinced Trump is the best man to stop Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.
“I was worried about what would happen if she won, and that’s why I felt like I had to support Donald Trump and help him win,” said Cutler, a 40-year-old who said he voted for Democratic President Joe Biden four years ago. “If anything, it’s the lesser of two evils.”
The Kennedy-Trump alliance gives the former Republican president the backing of the well-known scion of a Democratic dynasty and the chance to portray his campaign as having bipartisan appeal. Even if Kennedy’s support sways a tiny number of Democrats to Trump’s side, it could be crucial in states like Arizona, where Biden won by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2020.
Trump’s path back to the White House depends in part on voters who do not trust institutions such as government, corporations and the mainstream media. This group is arduous to reach, win over and motivate to vote. Kennedy and Gabbard have a good reputation with these voters, who are more likely to get their news and information from podcasts and YouTube videos.
Both Trump and Kennedy have vowed in recent weeks to “make America healthy again,” a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, which refers to Kennedy’s frequent arguments during the campaign that chronic disease was becoming more common among Americans, as well as his promotion of discredited theories about vaccinations.
At Trump’s campaign rally on Saturday, Kennedy addressed members of his family who had criticized his support of Trump.
“I feel that people – including family members who have turned against me, my old friends who look at me with contempt and condemnation – are victims of some kind of hypnosis and psychological surgery and an orchestrated attempt to separate us from one another,” Kennedy told the crowd at Arizona Christian University. “Those of us who are awake must protect the things that are precious in this country without chasing them until they wake up and see what we have done for them.”
Partisans who switch sides often carry additional clout and gain the deference of activists who once condemned them. They can become sought-after surrogates and trusted ambassadors.
“This is a huge asset to Trump’s team,” Henry Slayton, a 62-year-old engineer from Bakersfield, California, said of Kennedy and Gabbard. “It shows that they are committed to the people, to the American people, and not to themselves.”
Harris has her own coalition of oddball bedfellows, including a son of former Republican presidential candidate John McCain and prominent members of former President George W. Bush’s administration. Progressives have even applauded Bush Vice President Dick Cheney for his endorsement of Harris – a dizzying change of heart from a lifelong conservative and passionate supporter of the Iraq War.
Kennedy himself rose to prominence as an environmental lawyer and leader of an anti-vaccination group. He initially challenged Biden for the Democratic nomination, but then left the party to run as an independent, accusing the party of conspiring against him.
Gabbard was known during her four terms in the House for taking positions at odds with her own party’s establishment. She was an early and vocal supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Democratic presidential primary, which endeared her to progressives.
Gabbard did not seek re-election in 2020, but instead ran for president herself. She said U.S. wars in the Middle East had destabilized the region, made the U.S. less secure and cost thousands of American lives, and that Democrats and Republicans shared the blame. She sharply criticized Harris’ record during a primary debate and ultimately prevailed in that race, which Biden ultimately won.
She used that experience to lend a hand Trump prepare for his own debate against Harris. Trump has assigned her and Kennedy roles when he takes office as president, potentially giving them the influence to lend a hand staff his administration and shape the policies the federal bureaucracy would pursue if he returns to the White House.
“This is about us the people standing up for freedom,” Gabbard said Saturday. “This is about us the people standing up for peace.”
Kennedy argued that the U.S. should stop supplying weapons to the Ukrainians in the third year of a war sparked by the Russian invasion. He claimed that the West forced Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine through NATO expansion. Trump refused to say in Tuesday’s presidential debate whether he thinks it is vital for Ukraine to win the war.
And he portrayed Trump’s disregard for expert opinions and research as admirable.
He said he was touched that Trump represented the views of mothers who believe their children have been harmed by vaccines, even though the overwhelming majority of researchers believe that complications from childhood vaccinations are extremely uncommon and outweigh the benefits. He described Trump as someone who does not submit to the “entire establishment” and the “high priests of the orthodoxies.”
“I think that’s a measure of his character,” he said.
An organization represented by Kennedy, Children’s Health Defense, is currently facing lawsuits against a number of news organizations, including the Associated Press, alleging that the organizations violated antitrust laws by taking steps to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines.
