Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looks on during a campaign event to announce his choice of candidates at the Henry J. Kaiser Event Center on March 26, 2024 in Oakland, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to drop out of the presidential race on Friday and endorse Republican nominee Donald Trump, NBC News reported Wednesday, citing two sources familiar with the independent candidate’s plans.
Kennedy’s withdrawal from the race would end a major effort that nevertheless threatened to upend the major-party battle between Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Kennedy and Trump campaigns are working on organizing a joint appearance, one of the NBC sources said.
Both Trump and Kennedy have events scheduled in the Phoenix, Arizona area on Friday. Kennedy’s campaign billed his event, set for 2 p.m. ET, as a speech “about the present historical moment and its path forward.”
Kennedy, 70, ran an unorthodox campaign that at times seemed both driven and bogged down by his opposing views and controversies on a range of hot-button issues.
While it never came close to the level of support garnered by the Republican and Democratic candidates, polls of the presidential race showed Kennedy making one of the strongest third-party showings in decades.
In a presidential map where victory may hinge on swinging narrow margins of fence voters in a handful of swing states, Kennedy’s appearance in ballots of 19 states could have a decisive impact.
In turn, Kennedy took flack from both parties, who essentially blamed him running a spoiler campaign which will draw votes from their preferred candidate.
For their part, Kennedy campaign officials have repeatedly expressed a greater affinity for Trump’s operation than Harris’s.
Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s running mate, suggested in an interview published Tuesday that the campaign is considering whether to stay in the race or “join forces with Donald Trump.”
The problem with continuing the third-party campaign, Shanahan explained, was that “they run the risk of a Kamala Harris and [Tim] Walz presidency because we’re getting … somehow more votes than Trump.”
A leaked video in April already showed a Kennedy campaign official calling President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee at the time, his “mutual enemy” Trump and Kennedy voters.
Suspicion of the Kennedy campaign working against the Democratic ticket grew significantly in July when another leaked video showed Trump telling Kennedy: “I’d like you to do something. And I think it’s going to be so good for you and so big for you.”
The Washington Post later reported that Kennedy had talks with Trump about possibly supporting the Republican’s campaign and, if he wins, joining his administration.
Trump in that video also said he agrees with Kennedy, which has gone viral debunked anti-vaccine claims for years, regarding childhood vaccinations.
Critics have often blamed both Kennedy and Shanahan, his ex-wife Google co-founder Sergey Brin, of peddling dangerous conspiracy theories, especially about vaccines.
Medical organizations say the vast majority childhood vaccines are safe. A 2024 World Health Organization study found that immunization efforts have saved more than 100 million infant lives the past half century.
Running as an independent after dropping out of the Democratic primary in late 2023, Kennedy campaigned as an alternative to the mainstream political binary.
He leaned heavily on his resume as an environmental lawyer and activist, casting himself as a killer of corporate giants and a voice for disaffected voters across the political spectrum.
His political stature was perhaps enhanced by his surname. A scion of the Kennedy political dynasty, RFK Jr. he is the son of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, both of whom were assassinated.
Kennedy’s wild personal life also provided a steady stream of human interest that regularly thrust him back into the spotlight.
In a recent interview with controversial comedian Roseanne Barr, Kennedy recounted how he had once planted a dead teddy bear in Central Park — acquired during a falconry mission north of New York City — and staged it to look like it had been hit by a cyclist.
This story, which aligned with references from 10 years ago, came weeks later Kennedy reportedly apologized to a woman who had accused him of sexual assault in the late 1990s.
That same month, Kennedy caused a stir when he wrote on Twitterwithout being asked that, “As President I will not take a position on 9/11 or any of the other debates.”
