Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s volunteers are airing their frustrations over recent reports the third-party candidate may drop out of the 2024 race this week and endorse Donald Trump.
“There are tens of thousands of us who have dedicated the last year of our lives to getting our candidate on the ballot for the sheer reason that Americans have an Independent voice,” one Kennedy organizer told Mediaite on Thursday. “We have the right to vote for who we choose. This is not the time for backroom deals so we get one of the two evils.”
In an email sent to campaign staff that was obtained by Mediaite, campaign manager Amaryllis Kennedy addressed the speculation that the former Democrat would be exiting the race.
“Any path forward changes the outcome,” she wrote. “With calcified support on both sides of the aisle, this 10+% of the electorate is the only molten force in the race.” She added that an update would be coming Friday, when Kennedy is set to hold a speech near a Trump rally in Pennsylvania.
The organizer slammed the idea that Kennedy would drop out and endorse the Republican nominee. “A million people have said they want the right to vote for [Kennedy], and it is not democratic that the right be taken away from a backroom deal. While we acknowledge and understand how valuable he would be in a Trump administration, it is too early to make that decision.”
Mediaite attended a Zoom call on Thursday organized by Kennedy campaign volunteers labeled the “People for Kennedy Urgent Call to Action Meeting” with more than 100 in attendance. Mediaite reported that the call was emotionally-charged, with some attendees crying at the prospect of Kennedy dropping out.
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An attendee who expressed discontent about Kennedy dropping out said during the meeting, “We are facing a big unknown tomorrow and asking you all to come together to see what we can do,” one attendee said during the meeting. “No matter how much we trust [Kennedy], many of us would not vote for Trump. What can we do today?”
Another attendee chimed in with a similar sentiment: “I don’t say these things lightly. We don’t know until it happens what the announcement will be and if he says he will endorse Trump, it will be seen as the two-party system has won again. Him being promised a cabinet position, Trump has gone through cabinet members like candy. I don’t think we can trust Trump. We need to take this into our own hands. I would personally like to force his hand and we should storm social media and make a one to three-minute video of ‘Hey Bobby, this is who I am, this is what I have done, we are a movement. You’ve been warning us for over a year about a two-party system.’ This for me was never about Kennedy, it was about breaking the two-party system.”
Another grassroots volunteer proposed writing in for Kennedy as a protest vote: “There is absolutely nothing stopping us from voting for Bobby and writing him in as a way to protest this.”
“If Kennedy teases withdrawing and endorsing Trump, to the point of staging an announcement in Phoenix when Trump is there too, and then, after detailing everything the Dems have done, announces he’s STAYING IN, that’s a masterstroke. He grabs the spotlight at the close of the Dem convention, shines it on their misconduct, does his moral duty by showing defiance and tenacity, and goes down in history as a hero and example to us all, even if he only gets 4%. If, instead, he withdraws and endorses Trump, he amplifies Harris’s convention bounce, feeds into the Dems’ narrative about him being a Trump plant, rewards their lawfare and media manipulation, does nothing for himself or Trump, and discredits himself forever,” added another concerned attendee.
Good more voters for Trump Hooray