Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Friday dropped his White House bid and announced support for former President Donald Trump, issuing broadsides against the Democratic Party's handling of the primary election and media censorship.
Kennedy said in Phoenix that the Democratic Party of "waged continual legal warfare against both President Trump and myself," and "ran a sham primary."
"In an honest system, I believe I would have won the election," he said.
Kennedy's campaign is asking swing states to remove his name from the ballot because he does not want to be a "spoiler," he said. He will remain on the ballot in states that he considers "red" or "blue," he said. "If you live in a blue state, you can vote for me without harming or helping President Trump or or Vice President Harris," Kennedy said. "In red states, the same will apply."
The former Democrat spoke a couple of hours before Trump was scheduled to hold a campaign event in nearby Glendale, Arizona. The Trump campaign on Thursday advertised that the former president would be joined by a "special guest," which further sparked speculation of a Kennedy endorsement of the Republican 2024 presidential nominee.
The announcement ends the presidential run by the longtime environmental activist and high-profile vaccine skeptic, who is the scion of the nation's most storied political dynasty.
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Kennedy launched his long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in April of last year, but last October the 70-year-old candidate switched to an independent run for the White House.
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While Kennedy had long identified as a Democrat and repeatedly invoked his late father Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and his uncle President John F. Kennedy, who were both assassinated in the 1960s, Kennedy in recent years built relationships with far-right leaders. Kennedy repeatedly invoked his father and uncle Friday in Phoenix.
President Biden's campaign and the Democratic National Committee for months repeatedly slammed Kennedy as a potential spoiler whose supporters could hand Trump a presidential election victory in November.
And the DNC battled Kennedy and his supporters at nearly every step as he worked to place his name on the ballot in all 50 states.
But Kennedy remained a thorn in Biden's side from last year through the president's announcement last month that he was ending his re-election bid and endorsing Harris.
The Trump campaign, which had cheered on Kennedy when he was running against Biden as a Democrat, also started taking aim at him after he switched to an independent run, labeling him a member of the "radical left," and criticizing him for his environmental activism.
But the relationship between Kennedy and Trump started warming earlier this year, and the two spoke last month after the assassination attempt against Trump and met in person the following day.
Earlier this week, Kennedy running mate Nicole Shanahan sparked headlines by saying in a podcast interview that the campaign was considering whether to "join forces" with Trump to prevent the possibility of Vice President Kamala Harris winning the 2024 election.
"If he endorsed me, I would be honored by it. I would be very honored by it. He really has his heart in the right place," Trump said on Thursday in an interview on "Fox & Friends."
And the former president's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, said Wednesday in an interview on "Fox & Friends" that he hoped Kennedy "endorses the president, gets on the team, because this is about saving the country."
Kennedy's departure from the race comes as his campaign was cratering.
The last public event put on by his campaign came on July 9, in Freeport, Maine. But even before that, his poll numbers – which once stood in the teens – had faded.
The most recent Fox News national poll, conducted August 9-12, indicated Kennedy at 6% support.
His fundraising was also in a free fall, with campaign finance reports indicating he had just $3.9 million cash on hand as of the start of July, with nearly $3.5 million in debt.