Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspends US presidential campaign, endorses Trump

Independent candidate says he no longer thinks he has ‘a realistic path of electoral victory’; his siblings decry endorsement of GOP candidate as ‘a sad ending to a sad story’

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces he is suspending his presidential campaign at a news conference Friday, August 23, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces he is suspending his presidential campaign at a news conference Friday, August 23, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

PHEONIX, Arizona (AFP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scion of America’s storied political clan, suspended his long-shot presidential bid on Friday and endorsed Donald Trump, injecting a new dose of uncertainty into the White House race.

“I no longer believe that I have a realistic path of electoral victory,” Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist who was polling in the low single digits, said at a press conference in the swing state of Arizona.

Kennedy, 70, condemned the selection of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic standard-bearer without a primary contest and cited a long list of grievances against his former party that he said had led him to now “throw my support to President Trump.”

Kennedy’s independent candidacy featured several bizarre stories — including about suffering from a parasitic brain worm and depositing a dead bear cub in Central Park — and drew the opposition of most of his famous family, who threw their weight behind the Democratic ticket.

“Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear,” his sister, human rights activist Kerry Kennedy, said on X.

“It is a sad ending to a sad story,” said the statement, also signed by four other siblings.

Kennedy’s withdrawal came a day after the surging Harris gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in which she accepted her party’s nomination to be president before embarking on the final 10-week sprint to election day.

Analysts are mixed on the effect Kennedy’s exit will have on the presidential race and how much of his support will gravitate to Trump or Harris.

However, in a very tight contest, it is possible that even a few thousand votes in a crucial swing state could determine who wins the White House.

Harris and Trump are neck and neck in the polls less than three weeks before their September 10 debate in Philadelphia.

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