Robert F Kennedy Jr announces bid to run for White House as an independent, abandons Democratic primary bid

Robert F. Kennedy Jr has officially announced that he will be running in the upcoming United States presidential election as an independent and dropped his Democratic primary bid, on Monday (Oct 9).

The 69-year-old longtime environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist and a reported conspiracy theorist had previously said that he would run for the Democratic nomination for president, being the only one to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden for the nomination in his re-election bid.

“I’m here to declare myself an independent candidate for president of the United States. I’m here to join you in making a new declaration of independence for our entire nation,” said Kennedy, in a speech in the city of Philadelphia.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Robert F Kennedy Jr belongs to one of the most famous Democratic families in American politics and spent the last six months running for the Democratic presidential nomination.

However, he was said to have been running a longshot primary bid in the Democratic party and has better favourability ratings among Republicans. So far, Biden and his allies have dismissed Kennedy’s primary bid as unserious.

Kennedy family ‘denounces’ his candidacy

While the 69-year-old has long said that he is a Democrat and frequently invoked the names of his late father, US Senator Robert F Kennedy, and his uncle President John F Kennedy on the campaign trails, he has recently said to be building close relations with right-wing figures.

He also made an appearance on a channel run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who lied about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and later acknowledged that the massacre had occurred after facing multiple lawsuits by the victims’ families and is now being asked to pay millions of dollars in damages.

After the announcement, the Kennedy family released a joint statement saying that they “denounce” Robert’s candidacy and called it “deeply saddening”.

“The decision of our brother Bobby to run as a third party candidate against Joe Biden is dangerous to our country,” said the Kennedy family, in a statement. “Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgement.”
It added, “Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for the country.”

Recent polls have also indicated that far more Republicans have a favourable opinion of Kennedy than Democratic party supporters.

The 69-year-old who had first announced that he was running against Biden for the Democratic nomination in April, has been polling at an average of 15 per cent among Democrats nationwide, according to a report by the Guardian.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.