Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the well-known conspiracy theorist and independent presidential candidate, claimed on Monday that he had declined an offer from Donald Trump to be his running mate in the upcoming election.
This statement came after a pro-Trump political action committee, Make America Great Again Inc. (MAGA Inc.), launched a website attacking Kennedy earlier in the day. The site, which labels Kennedy as a “leftist radical,” criticizes his purported liberal positions, such as supporting a 70% income tax rate and advocating for an assault weapons ban.
The website, titled “Radical F-ing Kennedy,” mocks the Kennedy family’s tradition of using middle initials, a nod to his assassinated relatives, including his uncle John F. Kennedy and father Robert F. Kennedy.
In response, Kennedy, who is known for promoting unfounded theories about COVID-19 and holding a history of racist, antisemitic, and xenophobic views, took to X (formerly Twitter) to make his own claims.
“President Trump calls me an ultra-left radical. I’m soooo liberal that his emissaries asked me to be his VP. I respectfully declined the offer,” Kennedy wrote. “I am against President Trump, and President Biden can’t win. Judging by his new website, it looks like President Trump knows who actually can beat him.”
Later on Monday, MAGA Inc. emailed reporters, criticizing Kennedy’s response as “defensive and emotional,” but did not address his claim of turning down the vice-presidential offer from Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
While Kennedy, a former Democrat, is not expected to win the presidency, analysts suggest his campaign, along with those of other third-party candidates, could act as a spoiler for Joe Biden’s chances of re-election.
Last month, Kennedy named Nicole Shanahan, a tech attorney and philanthropist, as his running mate, introducing her at a rally in Oakland, California, her hometown. The selection of the 38-year-old Shanahan is seen as an effort to appeal to millennial and Gen Z voters who may feel disengaged by the prospect of another Biden-Trump matchup. A February Quinnipiac poll indicated that Kennedy could potentially secure up to 15% of the vote.
Trump recently criticized Kennedy as “the most radical left candidate in the race” in a post on his Truth Social platform, reported by Mediaite. “If I were a Democrat, I’d vote for RFK Jr every single time over Biden because he’s frankly more in line with Democrats,” Trump wrote.
Amidst a flurry of strange and surprising revelations about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a particularly bizarre story from his past has resurfaced, gaining viral attention over the weekend. This renewed interest follows the end of Kennedy’s presidential campaign and his daughter’s rumored connection with a high-profile Hollywood figure.
In the Christmas 2012 issue of Town & Country, Kennedy’s daughter, Kick Kennedy, shared a peculiar story about her father’s extreme environmentalist tendencies.
Around 1994, Kennedy learned that a dead whale had washed ashore in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. In a dramatic display of environmental fervor, he rushed to the scene with a chainsaw and his 6-year-old daughter in tow. He proceeded to sever the whale’s head and secure it to the roof of his minivan with bungee cords for the five-hour drive back to their home in New York.
Kick Kennedy recounted, “Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet. We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day-to-day stuff for us.”
