PHILADELPHIA (AP) – President Joe Biden won the support of at least 15 members of the Kennedy political family during a campaign stop Thursday as he aims to undermine Donald Trump and marginalize the candidacy of independents Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kerry Kennedy, daughter of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, niece of former President John F. Kennedy and sister of the current presidential candidate, lent her support to Philadelphia by calling Biden ‘my hero’ .
“We want to make clear our sense that the best path forward for America is to re-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for four more years,” she said.
She never directly mentioned her brother, but insisted that “there are only two candidates with a chance of winning the presidency” this year, describing the campaign as a choice between Biden and Trump, without place for a third party candidate.
Biden, who keeps a bust of Robert F. Kennedy in the Oval Office, said the endorsements were “an incredible honor.” He said Trump, the former president who is the presumptive Republican nominee, posed a threat to America’s democratic traditions and that “now it’s time to keep going and not slow down because the stakes are enormous.”
The decision to highlight the Kennedy family’s support more than six months before Election Day is an indication of how seriously Biden’s team takes a distant candidate using the lingering Democratic magic of his last name to siphon support from the incumbent president.
Kennedy Jr. downplayed the mentions, writing about social networks that his family was “divided in our opinions but united in our love for each other.” He said his campaign was about “healing America.”
Given Kennedy Jr. fanciful political positions And with this year’s campaign expected to be decided by slim margins, both Democrats and Republicans fear it could be a spoiler. As a reminder of this potentially decisive role, Michigan officials said Kennedy qualified for state ballot THURSDAY.
Biden took advantage of Thursday’s event, which capped a three-day swing in Pennsylvania, keep the pressure on Trump.
“Donald Trump’s vision is one of anger, hatred, vengeance and retribution,” Biden said, adding: “I have a very different vision of America, a vision of hope and d ‘optimism.”
After the event, Biden thanked about three dozen supporters and volunteers who were preparing to call voters or knock on doors for his campaign.
“What you are doing here is bigger than me, bigger than you, bigger than all of us combined. It’s about what kind of country our children are going to live in,” Biden said.
He described the election as less about staying in power than keeping Trump out, saying the race was important “not because I’m running” but because of “what would happen if We were losing this election.”
The Kennedy family’s supporters are hardly a surprise. Members of the prominent Democratic family have said they disagree politically with Kennedy Jr., who started out as Biden’s primary protest challenger within the Democratic Party and is now running as an independent. Biden hosted more than 30 members of Kennedy’s extended family at the White House for St. Patrick’s Day last month, when family members posed with the president in the Rose Garden and Oval Office.
Later, Biden and members of the Kennedy family were scheduled to meet with supporters at a campaign event, and some Kennedys planned to call voters and knock on doors on Biden’s behalf.
Several notable family members did not support the initiative, including Caroline Kennedy, the United States ambassador to Australia, and nonprofit executive Maria Shriver, which the campaign said Biden, was due to their apolitical professional roles.
Shriver, however, has recently been a featured guest at the White House, attending the State of the Union ceremony and speaking at a reception to mark Women’s History Month last month.
Bernard Tamas of Valdosta State University, an expert on third parties, said it was unclear whether Kennedy Jr. would get more votes from Democrats or Republicans.
“He’s pro-science when it comes to the environment, but a conspiracy theorist when it comes to vaccines,” Tamas said.
Kennedy Jr.’s lack of clear policy direction limits his potential impact on the election, Tamas said, but Democrats appear more concerned because his last name could lead some voters to believe he is carrying on the political legacy from his family.
Other than that, Tamas said, “I don’t know what else he has to appeal to progressive voters.” »
Kennedy Jr. has spoken publicly in the past about disagreeing with his family on many issues, but maintains it can be done in an “amicable” manner. After a super political action committee supporting his campaign produced a television ad during the Super Bowl that relied heavily on footage from John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign, Kennedy Jr. apologized to of his loved ones on social media platform X, saying he was sorry if the place “caused pain to any member of my family.”
The Democratic National Committee has hired a communications team to combat the appeal of third-party candidates, chief among them Kennedy Jr.. The DNC also recently filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Kennedy Jr.’s campaign, accusing him of coordinating too closely with an affiliated super PAC to get his name on the presidential ballot in some states.
Kennedy Jr. is also viewed with suspicion by the Trump campaign. While Trump recently released a video saying, “If I were a Democrat, I would vote for RFK Jr. over Biden every time,” he has at times criticized Kennedy Jr. as being more “radical left” than Biden.
Leaving town, Biden strolled by a Wawa, accompanied by Mayor Cherelle Parker, where he picked up some food and ordered a black and white milkshake. That served to cover Biden’s bases on one front, given his stop Wednesday in Pittsburgh at Sheetz, a rival convenience chain.
Biden’s travels through Pennsylvania this week were an opportunity to reconnect with his roots, starting Tuesday in Scranton, where he lived until he was 10 years old. He passed by his childhood home, a three-story colonial building his family rented, and remembered attending mass. in Saint-Paul.
In Pittsburgh, he called for higher tariffs on steel and aluminum from China to protect American industry from what he called unfair competition. But even that event involved some nostalgia, as Biden recalled support from steelworkers when he was “a 29-year-old kid” from Delaware running for U.S. Senate.
“It changed everything,” he said.
