Three phrases advised 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 could 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 at some point announce his trustworthy intentions as a 2024 candidate. Given Kennedy’s rhetoric, his positions, and his help from conservative operatives, was he actually working as a Democrat? A pair thousand folks—supporters, journalists, marketing campaign volunteers, folks 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 regarded out at Independence Corridor as he spoke of “a brand new declaration of independence for our complete nation.” He rattled off a listing of every little 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 good friend Eric Clapton). Onstage, Kennedy formally declared his independence “from the Democratic Celebration and all different political events”—maybe an unsubtle method 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, mentioned 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 had been invited to actually sketch their imaginative and prescient of the longer term on clean sheets of paper with coloured pens. Throngs gathered on the grass in entrance of the Nationwide Structure Middle and had been led in a Native American tribal dance, adopted by the inoffensive piano stylings of Tim Hockenberry, who lined “Jersey Lady” 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 advised me he voted for Barack Obama twice, but in addition voted for the third-party candidate Ralph Nader twice, in addition to Jill Stein in 2016. “I search for one of the 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 mentioned. Chris Devol, 56, from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, was sporting a Philadelphia Eagles hoodie and smiling ear to ear as he awaited Kennedy’s arrival. Devol advised 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 help Kennedy subsequent November, he “one hundred pc” supported the thought of him competing within the Democratic main. An aged girl named Barbara (final title withheld), a retired trainer from Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, advised me she believed that President Joe Biden wasn’t doing something to deal with the nation’s drug drawback. She mentioned a bag of fentanyl was just lately discovered on the steps of her native church, then requested me if I used to be acquainted with the Boxer Riot.
Previous to Kennedy’s handle, 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 mentioned he enormously respects Kennedy, who has been accused of anti-Semitism, as a person of religion. Later, Kennedy mentioned he had arrived at a spot the place he was serving solely his conscience, his creator, and “you”—the voters.
This afternoon marked the fruits of what he described as a “very painful” choice. He famous his long-standing ties to the Democrats, the social gathering 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 working for reelection.) Kennedy has been polling within the double digits in opposition to Biden, however his help hasn’t grown meaningfully since he launched his marketing campaign. As of final Friday, based on 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 an announcement at the moment denouncing their brother’s newly impartial candidacy, calling his choice “perilous for our nation.” Kennedy acknowledged the problem forward of him. “There have been impartial candidates on this nation earlier than,” he mentioned. “However this time it’s going to be totally different.”
Kennedy is the second candidate in as many weeks to go rogue. Cornel West dropped his Inexperienced Celebration affiliation in favor of an impartial bid, telling The New York Instances, “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 notably nervous in regards to the candidacies of West or Marianne Williamson, Kennedy is totally 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 mentioned. He waited for a strategic beat. “The reality is, they’re each proper.”
All yr lengthy, mainstream Democrats have tried to faux that Kennedy merely doesn’t exist, with blended outcomes. Each the Biden marketing campaign and the DNC declined to remark at the moment on Kennedy’s change. The RNC, for its half, blasted out a listing 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 gained’t essentially harm Biden, and it would even assist him. David Axelrod, the chief strategist of Barack Obama’s campaigns, took a distinct view. “I believe something that lowers the edge for profitable helps Trump, who has a excessive flooring and low ceiling [of support,]” Axelrod advised me.
Kennedy tantalized the group with nuggets that purport to make the case for his electability: “I’ve seen the polls that they gained’t present you.” He identified that 63 p.c of Individuals 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 social gathering, 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 that there are many issues “they gained’t present you.” As I wrote in a profile of Kennedy this summer time, he has promoted a concept that Wi-Fi radiation causes most cancers and “leaky mind,” saying it “opens your blood-brain barrier.” He has instructed that antidepressants might need contributed to the rise in mass shootings. He advised me he believes that Ukraine is engaged in a “proxy” battle and that Russia’s invasion, though “unlawful,” wouldn’t have taken place if america “didn’t need it to.”
“He’s drawing from a lot of these Trump voters—the two-time Obama, onetime Trump—which are nonetheless disaffected, need change, and perhaps haven’t discovered a everlasting dwelling within the Trump motion,” Steve Bannon advised 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 folks.”
The truth is that Kennedy could have an especially arduous time even getting his title 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), advised me in a textual content message that Kennedy faces a “Herculean job” with “50 totally different state legal guidelines written by Republicans and Democrats working collectively to make poll entry as troublesome as doable.” Even when Kennedy is correct and voters are on the lookout for a real various to Trump and Biden, mathematically, Kennedy’s path to 270 electoral votes is nearly incomprehensible.
However, he mentioned he believes that he’s firstly of a brand new American second. “One thing is stirring in us that claims, It doesn’t need to be this manner,” Kennedy mentioned 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’t stand.” He mentioned that the left and the correct had grow to be “all blended up.” He mentioned that he was proud to depend these on either side of the abortion debate amongst his supporters, along with “local weather activists” and “local weather skeptics,” and, in fact, the “vaccinated” and the “unvaccinated.” Maybe saying the quiet half out loud, Kennedy mentioned it might be very arduous for folks 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.”
Once 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 mentioned.
Round that point, I requested his marketing campaign supervisor, Dennis Kucinich, if Kennedy was dedicated to working solely as a Democratic candidate.
“He’s working within the Democratic main,” Kucinich responded.
“So, no likelihood of a 3rd social gathering?”
“He’s working within the Democratic main.”
“Gotcha. And nothing might change that?”
“He’s working within the Democratic main.”
At this time, after Kennedy completed talking, Kucinich briefly seized the mic and led the group in a constructing, dramatic chant:
“I declare my independence!”
