Three phrases informed the story. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s marketing campaign had billed this afternoon’s occasion in Philadelphia as a “much-anticipated announcement.” After all, that particular phrase might have been extra true than meant.
Ever since Kennedy entered the Democratic presidential main race within the spring, observers had been anticipating that he’d in the future announce his trustworthy intentions as a 2024 candidate. Given Kennedy’s rhetoric, his positions, and his assist from conservative operatives, was he actually operating as a Democrat? A pair thousand individuals—supporters, journalists, marketing campaign volunteers, individuals with nothing to do—trekked to Philly to seek out out.
The candidate was nothing if not on message. Standing in entrance of a backdrop that learn DECLARE YOUR INDEPENDENCE, Kennedy seemed out at Independence Corridor as he spoke of “a brand new declaration of independence for our whole nation.” He rattled off an inventory of every thing we’d quickly be impartial from: cynical elites, the mainstream media, rich donors. (Although, presumably, not the identical rich donors who just lately raised greater than $2 million for him and his tremendous PAC at a non-public property in Brentwood, California, with assist from his pal Eric Clapton). Onstage, Kennedy formally declared his independence “from the Democratic Occasion and all different political events”—maybe an unsubtle solution to shoot down hypothesis that he would possibly change his thoughts and run as a Libertarian, or perhaps a Republican. As his spouse, Cheryl Hines, stated a bit cryptically earlier than her husband took the stage: “Are you actually prepared for Bobby Kennedy?”
Kennedy, whom many got here to know as a Boomer environmentalist, was the star of this mellow present with a definite ’60s campus vibe. At one desk, attendees have been invited to actually sketch their imaginative and prescient of the long run on clean sheets of paper with coloured pens. Throngs gathered on the grass in entrance of the Nationwide Structure Middle and have been led in a Native American tribal dance, adopted by the inoffensive piano stylings of Tim Hockenberry, who lined “Jersey Woman” in a Springsteen growl. Outdoors the doorway, enterprising distributors offered an array of Kennedy memorabilia: buttons that learn RESIST INSANITY, RAGE AGAINST THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE, and FIT TO BE PRESIDENT, that includes a photograph of a buff, shirtless Kennedy. One attendee waved an enormous black-and-white flag with a message for his or her fellow Kennedy-heads: WE ARE THE CONTROL GROUP. Many individuals wore fedoras.
They got here from throughout. Michael Schroth, 69, and his spouse, Luz, had taken a 4:30 a.m. bus down from Boston. Schroth informed me he voted for Barack Obama twice, but additionally voted for the third-party candidate Ralph Nader twice, in addition to Jill Stein in 2016. “I search for the very best candidate, and I don’t care in the event that they’re going to win or not. It’s getting the thought out,” he stated. Chris Devol, 56, from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, was carrying a Philadelphia Eagles hoodie and smiling ear to ear as he awaited Kennedy’s arrival. Devol informed me he had voted for the third-party candidate Ross Perot in 1992, and that though he wasn’t positive whether or not he’d assist Kennedy subsequent November, he “one hundred pc” supported the thought of him competing within the Democratic main. An aged lady named Barbara (final identify withheld), a retired instructor from Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, informed me she believed that President Joe Biden wasn’t doing something to deal with the nation’s drug drawback. She stated a bag of fentanyl was just lately discovered on the steps of her native church, then requested me if I used to be aware of the Boxer Rebel.
Previous to Kennedy’s deal with, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, one of many opening audio system, requested for a second of silence to honor the violence of this previous weekend. Somebody within the crowd yelled out “Warmonger!” One other screamed, “Free the Palestinians!” Boteach acknowledged neither particular person, and stated he drastically respects Kennedy, who has been accused of anti-Semitism, as a person of religion. Later, Kennedy stated he had arrived at a spot the place he was serving solely his conscience, his creator, and “you”—the voters.
This afternoon marked the end result of what he described as a “very painful” resolution. He famous his long-standing ties to the Democrats, the get together of his household, which he casually known as a dynasty, earlier than tearing into the tyranny of the two-party system. For weeks, Kennedy had been attacking the Democratic Nationwide Committee for “rigging” the first course of. (The DNC has refused to carry main debates, as is customized when a celebration’s incumbents are operating for reelection.) Kennedy has been polling within the double digits in opposition to Biden, however his assist hasn’t grown meaningfully since he launched his marketing campaign. As of final Friday, in accordance with the FiveThirtyEight common, Kennedy was polling at 16.4 p.c in contrast with Biden’s 61.2 p.c. 4 of his siblings—Kerry Kennedy, Rory Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend—issued a press release right now denouncing their brother’s newly impartial candidacy, calling his resolution “perilous for our nation.” Kennedy acknowledged the problem forward of him. “There have been impartial candidates on this nation earlier than,” he stated. “However this time it’s going to be completely different.”
Kennedy is the second candidate in as many weeks to go rogue. Cornel West dropped his Inexperienced Occasion affiliation in favor of an impartial bid, telling The New York Occasions, “I’m a jazz man in politics and the lifetime of the thoughts who refuses to play solely in a celebration band!” Although neither Democrats nor Republicans appear significantly anxious in regards to the candidacies of West or Marianne Williamson, Kennedy is completely different. “The Democrats are frightened that I’m going to spoil the election for President Biden, and the Republicans are frightened that I’m going to spoil the election for President Trump,” Kennedy stated. He waited for a strategic beat. “The reality is, they’re each proper.”
All yr lengthy, mainstream Democrats have tried to fake that Kennedy merely doesn’t exist, with blended outcomes. Each the Biden marketing campaign and the DNC declined to remark right now on Kennedy’s swap. The RNC, for its half, blasted out an inventory of “23 Causes to Oppose RFK Jr.,” and stories have been circulating that Trump’s allies are making ready to pummel Kennedy with opposition analysis. Final week, the election analyst Nate Silver argued that Kennedy’s impartial run received’t essentially harm Biden, and it’d even assist him. David Axelrod, the chief strategist of Barack Obama’s campaigns, took a special view. “I believe something that lowers the edge for successful helps Trump, who has a excessive ground and low ceiling [of support,]” Axelrod informed me.
Kennedy tantalized the group with nuggets that purport to make the case for his electability: “I’ve seen the polls that they received’t present you.” He identified that 63 p.c of People need an impartial to run for president. Although he didn’t cite the origin of this statistic, it aligns with current Gallup polling, which additionally confirmed that 58 p.c of Republicans endorse a 3rd U.S. political get together, up from 45 p.c final yr.
Kennedy has constructed his candidacy, and his profession as a lawyer and author extra broadly, on the concept there are many issues “they received’t present you.” As I wrote in a profile of Kennedy this summer time, he has promoted a idea that Wi-Fi radiation causes most cancers and “leaky mind,” saying it “opens your blood-brain barrier.” He has recommended that antidepressants might need contributed to the rise in mass shootings. He informed me he believes that Ukraine is engaged in a “proxy” warfare and that Russia’s invasion, though “unlawful,” wouldn’t have taken place if the US “didn’t need it to.”
“He’s drawing from lots of these Trump voters—the two-time Obama, onetime Trump—which are nonetheless disaffected, need change, and possibly haven’t discovered a everlasting house within the Trump motion,” Steve Bannon informed me as I used to be reporting the profile. “Populist left, populist proper, and the place that Venn diagram overlaps—he’s speaking to these individuals.”
The fact is that Kennedy can have an especially laborious time even getting his identify on the poll. The GOP “soiled trickster” Roger Stone, who earlier this yr was accused of being amongst these propping up Kennedy’s candidacy (one thing he has repeatedly denied), informed me in a textual content message that Kennedy faces a “Herculean activity” with “50 completely different state legal guidelines written by Republicans and Democrats working collectively to make poll entry as tough as attainable.” Even when Kennedy is correct and voters are searching for a real different to Trump and Biden, mathematically, Kennedy’s path to 270 electoral votes is nearly incomprehensible.
However, he stated he believes that he’s firstly of a brand new American second. “One thing is stirring in us that claims, It doesn’t should be this fashion,” Kennedy stated onstage. He nodded to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech from the eve of his assassination and quoted Abraham Lincoln quoting Jesus Christ: “A home divided can not stand.” He stated that the left and the proper had turn out to be “all blended up.” He stated that he was proud to rely these on either side of the abortion debate amongst his supporters, along with “local weather activists” and “local weather skeptics,” and, after all, the “vaccinated” and the “unvaccinated.” Maybe saying the quiet half out loud, Kennedy stated it will be very laborious for individuals to inform “whether or not my administration is left or proper.” He had no scarcity of curious metaphors. He promised not simply to “take the wheel,” however to “reboot the GPS.” The nation’s two-party system? “A two-headed monster that leads us over a cliff.” And, in case it wasn’t clear: “On the backside of that cliff is the destruction of our nation.”
After I interviewed Kennedy for the profile, I requested him what he thought can be extra harmful for the nation: 4 extra years of Biden, or one other Trump time period. “I can’t reply that,” he stated.
Round that point, I requested his marketing campaign supervisor, Dennis Kucinich, if Kennedy was dedicated to operating solely as a Democratic candidate.
“He’s operating within the Democratic main,” Kucinich responded.
“So, no likelihood of a 3rd get together?”
“He’s operating within the Democratic main.”
“Gotcha. And nothing may change that?”
“He’s operating within the Democratic main.”
At present, after Kennedy completed talking, Kucinich briefly seized the mic and led the group in a constructing, dramatic chant:
“I declare my independence!”
