AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is preparing to end his 2024 campaign and endorse Donald Trump for president, sources told Mediaite.
This week, a series of signs began to point to the end of his quixotic independent bid for the presidency, which fared surprisingly well in the polls and threatened to siphon support from both the Trump and Kamala Harris campaigns — though most saw the campaign as a particularly acute threat to the Republican ticket.
A person familiar with the conversations between Trump and Kennedy said an endorsement is imminent. Discussions, they said, have been “a week in the works so I expect it to happen any minute.”
In an email sent to campaign staff that was obtained by Mediaite, campaign manager Amaryllis Kennedy addressed the chatter.
While Kennedy has cast his campaign as a serious bid with a shot at actually winning the election, the email described it as a small but influential movement that could decide the race between Trump and Harris.
“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.”
The tacit admission that Kennedy’s run is confined to its effect on the two frontrunners was as far as Amaryllis Kennedy went in broaching the potential of ending the campaign. It heavily suggested that Kennedy would endorse Trump, whose assassination attempt she compared to the successful killing of Kennedy’s father.
“What I can tell you is this. Bobby has been in a period of deep discernment,” she said. “So please, hold tight until you hear directly from him.”
She added that Kennedy would be sharing an update on the fate of his campaign by Friday. One Kennedy campaign insider who spoke with Mediaite suggested the candidate could announce the end of his campaign during a speech he’s set to deliver on Friday in Phoenix, Arizona. Trump is also holding a rally in Arizona on Friday, in nearby Glendale.
The email came two days after Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan suggested they could drop out of the race to endorse Trump in a bid to secure a position in a potential Trump administration.
The Kennedy insider declined to confirm whether Kennedy would exit the race but suggested that the political scion would do so in order to stop Harris from beating Trump.
“If, in a selfless move of placing country over personal goals (which is characteristic of Bobby and why he is such a phenomenal leader), Bobby makes the difficult decision to leave the race so his medical freedom and autism moms base of around 3-5% of votes in almost all states (more in some) ensures the Democrats do not take the White House, then that would be very patriotic of him,” they said.
The insider proposed that Trump offer Kennedy a major position in his administration, potentially with the Department of Health & Human Services or as attorney general: “If, subsequently, Trump were to have the sense to recognize that no one could help him drain the swamp better than Bobby, in an HHS or AG position for example, and he decides to offer that… then that would also be very patriotic of him.”
The insider added that the “smartest” way for Kennedy to leave the race would be to announce “within the next 48 hours” in order to blunt the end of the Democratic National Convention as well as put an end to the legal and financial burdens the campaign is currently facing as a result of its ballot access fight.
“The financially overburdened campaign is facing court and legal challenges that will continue to snowball, combined with the fact that the only states in which he is not facing challenges are swing states, which gives serious advantage to the Kamala ticket,” the insider said.
“Bobby got into this with a purpose and a mission. He can still accomplish that goal though it won’t be in the way he had originally hoped, but he can make a real difference if he is strategic in his next moves, and the timing of those moves,” the insider added. “If it were me, I would announce it before the weekend.”
Trump and Kennedy have previously discussed working together. Mediaite reported last month that Kennedy drafted a unity pledge after meeting with Trump at the Republican National Convention during which the two discussed Kennedy dropping out to endorse Trump. In the pledge, Kennedy proposed serving as HHS Secretary in a potential Trump administration.
When reached for comment about whether Kennedy would drop out and endorse Trump, a spokesperson simply sent Mediaite a link to his speech on Friday. The Trump campaign did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
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