Republicans Hate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Now, Is There A Vaccine For That?
Don't take it, it's not worth it!
Well dadgummit, it was bound to happen. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. decided he’s not going to sit around here and wait to lose the Democratic primary to Joe Biden, not when he can lose the general election to everyone. So he decided he’d run as an independent. And Republicans and right-wing media, who so recently were pushing RFK’s candidacy like he’s the second coming of Vladimir Putin, suddenly don’t like him anymore!
It’s like they correctly are assuming that Kennedy is most likely to steal some of the lunatic vote, as opposed to depressing the Biden vote and helping Trump get elected, which is why they were boosting him in the first place.
How unfair is that? Does nobody love RFK Jr. for who he is, as opposed to not loving him for who he is?
They’re tweeting out videos of RFK Jr. saying Louis Farrakhan is so great, and sending out talking points highlighting the handful of non-monstrous/-insane things about Kennedy, which are of course also the things that make him incompatible with the white supremacist fascist Republican brand.
The Republican National Committee greeted his announcement with a press release that described Kennedy as “just another radical, far-left Democrat,” with a number of talking points that could be used by the expansive network of conservative commentators who tend to take messaging cues from the party.
“Make no mistake — a Democrat in Independent’s clothing is still a Democrat. RFK Jr. cannot hide from his record of endorsing Hillary, supporting the Green New Deal, fighting against the Keystone Pipeline, and praising AOC’s tax hikes — he is your typical elitist liberal and voters won’t be fooled,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. […]
“We have to attack him,” said a Republican familiar with the party’s strategy, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations. “He would hurt the eventual nominee.”
OK, but Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also shoots out Kremlin talking points on Ukraine like a Mr. Bucket on PCP, doesn’t he get credit for that?
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for former president Donald Trump’s campaign, echoed the condemnation. “Voters should not be deceived by anyone who pretends to have conservative values,” Cheung said in a statement. An “RFK candidacy is nothing more than a vanity project for a liberal Kennedy to cash in on his family’s name.”
Yeah, wait until the actual Donald Trump decides to start making fun of Kennedy, and not just his sniveling spokesboy. We have an idea what it might look like.
The RNC sent out 23 entire reasons to hate Kennedy, the guy Fox News was slobbering over as recently as six seconds ago. "RFK Jr. knows full well he’ll 'take more votes' from the Republican nominee; that’s why he’s running," their email says. "But do not be fooled — the only way to reverse America’s decline at the hands of Biden is to elect a Republican as president next year."
The Washington Post notes that Democrats did not similarly rush to send out press releases and statements on what a stinker Kennedy is, upon his announcement he is now running as an independent. Well, not most Democrats. A bunch of the Kennedy family weighed in, though:
Four of his siblings released a statement Monday denouncing his independent bid as “dangerous for the country.”
“Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment,” wrote Rory Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. “Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us.”
Hate that for him.
Why are Republicans doing this? Well, despite how Politico is still writing handwringing articles where it pretends to be confused over whether an RFK Jr. independent run would hurt Trump or Biden more, those very same articles say LOL JK, it hurts Trump. You just have to scroll all the way to the bottom.
Polls consistently show Kennedy is more popular with Republicans than Democrats, a phenomenon that emerged during Kennedy’s ill-fated primary against Biden, as the campaign put the activist’s longtime skepticism about vaccines in the spotlight, and Kennedy made a host of appearances on Fox News.
Right. Going for your town hall with Hannity is not generally part of a Democrat’s path to the White House.
Those positions are a poor match with Democratic voters, which essentially doomed any chance Kennedy had to win the nomination.
“Poor match” and “doomed” and “chance” and “nomination” are doing some really heavy lifting in that sentence Politico wrote.
Politico even suggests that it’s possible Kennedy himself is cognizant of who his real audience is (complete fucking lunatics), which might be why he’s speaking at CPAC next month on the same bill as Vivek Ramaswamy and Kari Lake.
Anyway, enjoy this video from Kennedy’s launch party yesterday, it looks like it went swell.
[Washington Post / Politico / video via Mike Sington]
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We might as well take this opportunity to reminisce on that galaxy brain intellectual exchange from Rogan's podcast back in June:
RFK Jr.: Wifi radiation opens up your blood-brain barrier so all these toxins that are in your body can now go into your brain.
Rogan: How does wifi open up your blood-brain barrier?
RFK Jr.: Now you've gone beyond my expertise.
Now watch. Junior is going to claim he's a victim of bad faith and persecution by the Republicans and conservative media. They will join all the other people who are victimizing him, including the liberals, the DNC, the mainstream media, the medical establishment, Big Pharma, Big Tech and pretty much everyone else on Earth.
And he'll love every minute of it, because he's a contrarian narcissist who thrives on any kind of attention, positive or negative. It was why the Democrats' approach, essentially to ignore him, was correct; deprived of attention in one spot, he'll go to another to get it, like any bratty toddler.