Democratic Frustration Grows as Right-Wing Figures Push RFK Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s upstart candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2024 has perplexed, annoyed, and angered top Democrats, especially as a scion of the party’s most noteworthy family has been pushed by a string of Republican figures eager to damage President Joe Biden.

When Kennedy, the son of former Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, launched his campaign in April, top Democrats looked quizzically at his candidacy, questioning how a man best known for his persistent questioning of vaccines and pushing scores of unfounded theories could think he had a shot at winning the nomination of a party whose base rallied around vaccines as a political issue just two years earlier.

But as polls have shown Kennedy with a small yet consistent level of Democratic support, that amusement turned into frustration, especially as Kennedy has cozied up to controversial media figures such as podcasters Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan, has Fox News hosts describing the many areas where they agree, and receives fawning comments from a number of Donald Trump acolytes, ranging from former adviser Steve Bannon to raconteur and Trump friend Roger Stone to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

People close to Biden believe that if Democrats get a clear look at Kennedy’s positions on guns, vaccines, and a host of other issues, they will realize he is out of step with many of the party’s core tenets. A spokesperson for Kennedy’s campaign did not respond to The Messenger’s questions.

“As Americans are exposed more and more to his extreme and unpopular record and agenda, we fully expect his support to continue to falter,” said a source close to the Biden campaign.

But that belief implies concerned Democratic institutions – like the Biden campaign, the Democratic National Committee or other outside groups – will have to expose the party’s base to Kennedy’s views, something no major groups have been willing to do yet.

“This is who Robert Kennedy Jr. is,” wrote Rep. Robert Garcia after Kennedy told controversial podcaster Jordan Peterson that “chemical exposures” in the nation’s water supply are partly to blame for “a lot of the problems we see in kids, particularly boys,” including children identifying as transgender. 

“He’s a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist who is anti-vaccine and dangerous to the LGBTQ+ community,” the California congressman added. “If you are a Dem or ally promoting this nut job then you should be ashamed of yourself.”

To other Democrats, the idea that Kennedy is garnering any support against Biden is a worrying sign about the 2024 election.

“It says everything you need to know about this race, that this man with his crazy ideas is gaining any support. But he is,” said one Democratic strategist who has doubts about Biden's ability to win. “Because no one wants to believe Biden can lose this thing. People are tired of both Biden and Trump. Voters want options. Democrats don’t believe that.”

Kennedy’s disconnect with the base

The depth of Kennedy’s disconnect with the Democratic base on a series of key issues is significant.

Before running for president, Kennedy was best known for his views on vaccines. These beliefs, which Kennedy’s own family has disavowed, almost landed him on a Trump administration commission on “vaccine safety and scientific integrity.” But as the coronavirus raged during the 2020 election and in response to Trump’s persistent downplaying of the pandemic, Democrats rallied around vaccines and turned them into a potent political issue against Republicans. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, upwards of 95% of Democrats were vaccinated earlier this year and self-identified Democrats have consistently been the most fervent supporters of the coronavirus vaccine.

Kennedy recently told the New York Post he is not an anti-vaxxer, claiming he is supportive of “safe vaccines.” During the coronavirus pandemic, however, Kennedy was seen as one of the leading voices attempting to discredit the Covid vaccine.

But his disconnect with the Democratic base doesn’t end there. 

Kennedy has said his “position on gun control is I’m not going to take away anybody’s guns” and that he is a “constitutional absolutist” on guns. He has also suggested that anti-depressants could be to blame for school shootings. A Fox News poll in April found 84 percent of Democrats support an assault weapons ban.

And on the Ukraine war, Kennedy said that Russia was “acting in good faith” to end the conflict and that the United States were “the ones who have not been acting in good faith.” Although Kennedy has said, “I abhor Russia's brutal and bloody invasion of that nation,” he has also said the United States “has also contributed to its circumstances through repeated deliberate provocations of Russia going back to the 1990s." A recent Gallup News poll found that 82 percent of Democrats view Ukraine favorably, and the Axios/Ipsos Two Americas Index found 79 percent of Democrats said they support the United States sending weapons and financial support to Ukraine.

A Kennedy spokesperson did not respond to The Messenger’s questions about the candidate’s comments on these issues.

It’s those same positions, though, that are garnering support from Republicans, who not so coincidentally see Kennedy as a useful irritant for the Biden campaign.

When the New York Times wrote that Kennedy is “spreading misinformation,” it was Christina Pushaw, a top spokeswoman for Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, who hit back: “You are spreading misinformation.... I am not a Democrat but I think this country needs a real debate between Biden and Robert Kennedy Jr. on vaccines.”

Kennedy said publicly in May that he had breakfast with DeSantis during the coronavirus pandemic and said the governor told him he wanted to “burn” the National Institutes of Health “to the ground." When DeSantis confirmed the reports in a television interview and said he “could not think of a more catastrophic response than how this country responded to Covid,” Kennedy responded to the governor’s campaign account, “All true!”

Kennedy is also picking up support from wealthy technology investors, whose sizable bank accounts and powerful connections worry Democrats who know Kennedy needs to raise significant funds to mount a campaign.

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, recently tweeted that Kennedy “can and will” beat Trump and DeSantis. Entrepreneurs and podcasters David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya hosted a fundraiser for Kennedy this month, with Palihapitiya, a former top executive at Facebook, encouraging “anyone that has even a small shred of skepticism about the Establishment or mainstream media to find an opportunity to hear RFK speak and come to your own conclusion.” And Kennedy recently held a lengthy Twitter Spaces with Elon Musk, the anti-establishment Twitter owner.

No debates

To top Democrats, Kennedy’s association with right-wing media figures and anti-establishment podcasters is one thing. What has increased their concern about Kennedy’s candidacy is mainstream outlets validating Kennedy’s quixotic campaign – highlighted recently by the cable outlet NewsNation announced they would host a 90-minute town hall with Kennedy next week.

That sort of validation, however, won’t come in the form of Democratic debates.

According to multiple top Democratic sources, there are no plans for the Democratic National Committee to host debates between Biden and any Democratic primary opponents, including Kennedy. The sources cite significant precedent that incumbent presidents don’t debate in primaries, something they say goes back to the first modern presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

“There is zero reason Biden should entertain debates with this nut job,” said Jim Manley, once a top operative to Sen. Ted Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s uncle. “It's all a house of cards. It's going to fall apart sometime. God only knows what Steve Bannon and Roger Stone are doing behind the scenes.”

Manley attributed some of the support Kennedy has received this year to “the name and his family's place in Democratic history.”

Kennedy has previously said it was “unfortunate” that Democrats wouldn’t host debates against Biden, but a spokesperson to Kennedy said “no comment” when The Messenger asked about their current position on debates.