A broad coalition of the Kennedy household endorsed President Biden on Thursday at a marketing campaign rally in Philadelphia, pointedly rejecting one in every of their very own in Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the impartial candidate who many Democrats imagine poses a major menace to Mr. Biden’s re-election possibilities.
Among the many relations of Mr. Kennedy who backed Mr. Biden have been his siblings Joseph, Kerry, Rory, Kathleen, Maxwell and Christopher. Roughly a dozen Kennedys appeared on the rally, the place Kerry Kennedy launched Mr. Biden. Joe Kennedy III, Mr. Kennedy’s nephew and a former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, was anticipated to introduce the president at a second occasion.
“He has us thriving once more, believing once more, behaving like good neighbors once more,” Kerry Kennedy stated of Mr. Biden as he and 5 of her siblings seemed on from the stage. “Practically each single grandchild of Joe and Rose Kennedy helps Joe Biden. That’s proper, the Kennedy household endorses Joe Biden for president.”
Accepting the endorsement, Mr. Biden stated that Robert F. Kennedy’s “ardour and braveness impressed my technology,” recounting his speech calling for peace after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The present of pressure by the Kennedys despatched the clearest sign but that America’s most storied Democratic household is deeply fearful that one in every of its personal may tip the 2024 election to former President Donald J. Trump, and hopes to make use of its affect to attempt to cease him.
Many relations have beforehand expressed robust disapproval of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy, voicing anguish about his promotion of conspiracy theories and confusion about why he’s difficult a Democratic president they admire. Like many Democrats, they fear that he may assist Mr. Trump win if he attracts even a small variety of votes away from Mr. Biden within the battleground states — contests that have been determined by tens of 1000’s of votes in 2020.
Responding to the transfer by his relations, Mr. Kennedy kept away from criticizing them.
“I hear a few of my household might be endorsing President Biden right this moment,” he wrote on social media. “I’m happy they’re politically lively — it’s a household custom. We’re divided in our opinions however united in our love for one another.”
Mr. Trump remained the primary goal of assaults on the Philadelphia occasion, with Kerry Kennedy calling him “probably the most anti-democratic president in American historical past.”
Nonetheless, the symbolic repudiation of Mr. Kennedy was not refined. His sister stated that she believed Mr. Biden’s marketing campaign “ought to unite not solely Democrats however all People, together with Republicans and independents,” teams her brother is hoping to enchantment to. She repeatedly emphasised the necessity for unity to defeat Mr. Trump.
An individual aware of the matter, who insisted on anonymity, stated that Kennedy relations had approached the Biden workforce and requested a joint occasion for the endorsements.
The household had telegraphed its intentions: Final month, members visited Mr. Biden on the White Home for St. Patrick’s Day, sharing a photograph of him with a big group of them. “From one proud Irish household to a different — it was good to have you ever all again on the White Home,” Mr. Biden wrote on social media.
Members of the Kennedy household additionally denounced an advert {that a} tremendous PAC supporting Mr. Kennedy ran in the course of the Tremendous Bowl. The advert carefully resembled a spot supporting John F. Kennedy, his uncle, throughout his 1960 bid for the White Home.
With the election months away, and Mr. Kennedy nonetheless pursuing entry to the poll in lots of states, it’s laborious to know whether or not he would draw extra votes from Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden’s camp. However polls counsel that Mr. Trump’s base of assist is rather more mounted than Mr. Biden’s, that means it’s potential that a few of the president’s voters could possibly be open to another.
The Democratic Occasion has put collectively a workforce of legal professionals geared toward monitoring Mr. Kennedy’s menace, particularly in battleground states. The group can be in search of to counter different potential spoilers reminiscent of Cornel West, a progressive tutorial in search of the presidency, and the Inexperienced Occasion.
Democrats have already watched the collapse of 1 third-party effort that they had nervously eyed: The centrist group No Labels, after in search of to arrange a reasonable politician with nationwide recognition as a substitute for Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, introduced early this month that it could abandon its try.
Mr. Kennedy holds a smorgasbord of coverage positions not simply categorized by ideology. He has expressed liberal views on abortion, the setting and earnings inequality, however has additionally promoted false theories concerning the security of vaccines and pushed arguments which are extra widespread on the precise.
This month, he questioned the Justice Division’s effort to prosecute those that rioted on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, downplaying the severity of the assault. His marketing campaign additionally fired a advisor who had urged that supporting Mr. Kennedy would assist Mr. Trump defeat Mr. Biden.
Nonetheless, Mr. Trump has signaled that he, too, sees Mr. Kennedy as doubtlessly attracting voters away from his marketing campaign. He posted on social media final month that Mr. Kennedy was extra “radical Left” than Mr. Biden, casting him as a liberal Democrat in disguise. But Mr. Trump has additionally privately expressed intrigue with the thought of selecting Mr. Kennedy as his working mate — a notion that these near him contemplate unrealistic and that Mr. Kennedy himself rejected.
Mr. Biden’s rally in Philadelphia is the ultimate main cease in a three-day swing via Pennsylvania. In the course of the journey, he laid out his financial and tax agenda, repeatedly attacking Mr. Trump as rich, out of contact and an enemy of working folks.