President Biden has received a lot of bad news recently, including major polls showing that two-thirds of Democrats don’t want him to run for a second term and former President Trump is leading him in hypothetical 2024 match-ups. Even worse, despite shrill denials from the White House and the negligence of the news media, recent polls show that a majority of voters believe Biden was involved in his family’s corrupt influence peddling. With all of this to contend with, the last thing our embattled President needs is a serious third-party challenge from a high-profile public figure who could well garner enough general election votes to deprive him of another term. (READ MORE: Biden’s Margin of Error Is Gone)
That is, however, precisely what Biden will likely face in 2024. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears poised to relaunch his presidential bid on a third-party ticket. Friday afternoon, Mediaite reported that such a run was indeed imminent according to a text received from a Kennedy insider who said, “Bobby feels that the DNC is changing the rules to exclude his candidacy so an independent run is the only way to go.” A few hours later, the Kennedy campaign posted a video to X (formerly Twitter) in which the candidate said, “I’m going to be in Philadelphia on October 9 to make a major announcement at the very birthplace of our nation.” He declined to reveal the precise details but suggested that this would be no ordinary event:
I’ll be speaking about a sea change in American politics and what your part and my part is in that change. A lot of Americans who had previously given up any hope that real change would ever come through the American electoral process have begun to find new hope in my candidacy. And I understand the deeply felt concern that people have about the way corruption has overtaken our government. It’s in the executive branch. It’s in Congress. It’s in the leadership of both political parties. And so, some people feel a kind of cynicism alongside the hope, or they lose hope entirely because they’ve been disappointed so many times.
Among those disappointments has been the shabby treatment Kennedy has received at the hands of his own party. Not long after he announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination, the White House colluded with the corporate media to slander him as an anti-Semite. Then, congressional Democrats attempted to censor and remove him from a House subcommittee hearing concerning censorship. Next, the DNC rigged its presidential primaries to shut Kennedy out. Finally, Biden’s DHS Secretary denied him Secret Service protection, despite his tragic family history and the arrest of an armed man at one of his rallies. Thus, the scion of a famous political dynasty can honestly tout himself as an “outsider.”
Kennedy understands that Trump isn’t perfect, but he also knows that he isn’t as malevolent as the people who run the Biden regime.
Considering the mood of the electorate, it’s better to be an outsider than a member of the establishment. According to the RealClearPolitics average, more than two-thirds of the voters believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. That’s not good news for any incumbent, which inevitably raises the following question: Would an independent run by RFK Jr. benefit Trump or Biden? There isn’t much polling on Kennedy as a third-party candidate, but the most recent surveys show him pulling about 15 percent of Democrat primary voters. This isn’t a huge number, but if even half that many vote for Kennedy rather than Biden, Trump will win. Thus, third-party candidates are very much on Democrat minds. The Hill reports:
Democrats aren’t just growing concerned about some potential third-party presidential candidates. They’re also becoming increasingly suspicious about those people’s motivations … Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gained more traction than many Democrats expected in his primary challenge to Biden. A potential presidential candidacy facilitated by the No Labels group is causing consternation … Democrats are keenly aware of the potential for a third-party candidate to shift the result of the 2024 election — and equally aware of the willingness of Republicans and conservatives to nudge such candidacies along.
Yet, as a spokesman for the Kennedy campaign put it, “Challengers to a weak or unpopular candidate are not the cause of the weakness.” The actual cause is always, in the end, the weakness itself — as manifested by bad policy, worse execution, and utterly implausible propaganda. This is the very definition of the Biden administration. They have, with their irresponsible and inflationary spending, made it far more difficult for ordinary Americans to afford the necessities of life — much less modest luxuries. Nonetheless, we are encouraged by our President and his corporate media toadies to celebrate “Bidenomics,” and ignore our shrinking savings, our growing debts and the ever-receding American Dream. (READ MORE: Welcome to the Democrats’ Nightmare: RFK Jr. Goes Third Party?)
This brings us to the most important difference between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the man who resides in the White House at present. Kennedy is no conservative, and is in some ways rather eccentric, but he believes in the America we have so long taken for granted. Moreover, he is an honest man, justly appalled by the “fundamental transformation” imposed by “leaders” like Biden on the nation for which his father and uncle sacrificed their lives. They would not countenance it and neither will he — even if his third-party candidacy will bring back the “Bad Orange Man.” Kennedy understands that Trump isn’t perfect, but he also knows that he isn’t as malevolent as the people who run the Biden regime, whoever they are.
READ MORE from David Catron:
Corrupt Media Worse Than Crooked Senators