Democratic presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr said Wednesday he was pleased to have Donald Trump’s approval. (Watch the video below.)
“I’m proud that President Trump likes me, even though I don’t agree with him on most of his issues, because I don’t want to alienate people,” Kennedy said in a town hall on NewsNation.
That would be the same Donald Trump who’s been indicted for hush-money payoffs to a porn star and for stashing classified documents. The twice-impeached former president is also being investigated for attempting to reverse his 2020 election defeat and fomenting an insurrection, and he’s being sued for cheating on his company’s taxes.
Moderator Elizabeth Vargas had mentioned that “leading voices on the right” like Tucker Carlson have embraced Kennedy, an anti-vaxxer with other controversial views.
“Many Democrats fear that you’re a spoiler in the race, that you will damage President Biden in the primary and grease the skids for former President Trump to return to the Oval Office,” Vargas said. She mentioned Trump’s praise of his “common sense.”
“What kind of man do you think Donald Trump is?”
“Here’s what I’m not gonna do in this race. I’m not gonna attack other people personally. I don’t think it’s good for our country,” Kennedy answered.
His goal, he said, is “to try to bridge the divide between Americans” like his father, Robert F Kennedy, did. He recalled accompanying his slain father’s body on a funeral train in 1968 as a “mix” of Americans paid their respects with signs. He said his dad, the former attorney general and US. senator who was running for president when he was assassinated, was able to “harness populist energies.”
That’s when Kennedy declared he was pleased to receive Trump’s admiration.
Asked by Vargas if he would pledge to support the eventual Democratic nominee, Kennedy offered repeated hedges as the moderator grilled him: “Of course I’m not gonna do that. ... I don’t know what I’ll do. Let’s see what happens in this campaign. ... My plan is to win this election and I don’t have a plan B.”