(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is wrapping up a three-day Pennsylvania campaign swing in Philadelphia on Thursday with an endorsement by 15 members of the politically famous Kennedy family — a counter to the political threat from RFK Jr.
In speech excerpts released by the Biden campaign from Kerry Kennedy, a daughter of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, she will say another Donald Trump presidency would “horrify” her father.
“We can say today, with no less urgency, that our rights and freedoms are once again in peril,” Kennedy is expected to say. “That is why we all need to come together in a campaign that should unite not only Democrats, but all Americans, including Republicans, and independents, who believe in what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.”
She along with several of her family members have denounced her brother Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bid for president. The Independent candidate, who officially launched his presidential bid last fall is famously known for espousing conspiracy theories about the efficacy of vaccines.
The endorsement comes as no real surprise. Although he is the fourth Kennedy to run for president, RFK Jr. is the only one to have broken from the Democratic Party. Many of his relatives, like Kerry Kennedy, argue that not only is his run an “embarrassment” but that it could swing a close race in Trump’s come November.
“I’ve listened to him, I know him, I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president,” Jack Scholossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, said in a video on Instagram last summer. “What I do know is his candidacy is an embarrassment.”
Rory Kennedy, RFK Jr.’s sister, told ABC’s Good Morning America a couple of weeks ago that she’s “concerned” voting for her brother will “take votes away from Biden and lead to a Trump election.”
Realistically the candidate, who is currently polling at 7%, according to 538’s average, has a longshot path to getting into the White House. Although his campaign has claimed he has enough signatures to appear on the ballots of eight states, including battleground states North Carolina and Nevada, only Utah has confirmed that he has qualified.
But in a race that is expected to see small margin wins, any votes siphoned away from the president could lead to another Trump presidency.
Biden, who has a close friendship with the Kennedy family, has steered away from commenting on RFK Jr.’s bid, but in a show of force against the candidate, the Democratic National Committee has hired a communications team to combat the legitimacy of Kennedy.
They’ve filed a federal complaint alleging RFK Jr.’s super PAC is working too closely with his campaign. And on a call with reporters in March, DNC surrogates called him “dangerous” and a “spoiler.”
“A vote for Joe Biden is a vote to save our democracy and our decency. It is a vote for what my father called for, in his own presidential announcement in 1968,” Kerry Kennedy is expected to say at Thursday’s announcement. “Our right to the moral leadership of this planet.”
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