A broad coalition of the Kennedy household will assist President Biden at a marketing campaign rally in Philadelphia on Thursday and pointedly oppose one in every of their very own candidates, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the unbiased nominee who many Democrats imagine poses a major menace to Mr. Biden’s time period represents electoral prospects.
Mr Kennedy’s relations anticipated to assist Mr Biden embrace his siblings Joseph, Kerry, Rory, Kathleen, Maxwell and Christopher. The Biden marketing campaign launched a listing of 15 Kennedys scheduled to seem on the rally, however stated different members of the family would additionally assist the president. Kerry Kennedy will introduce Mr. Biden on the rally, the marketing campaign stated, and Joe Kennedy III, Mr. Kennedy’s nephew and a former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, will achieve this at a second occasion.
The present of drive would be the clearest sign but that America’s most conventional Democratic household deeply fears that one in every of its members may swing the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald J. Trump and hopes to make use of its affect to attempt to overturn him to cease.
“Nobody competes with President Biden with regards to carrying on the legacy of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Ted Kennedy,” stated Kerry Kennedy stated on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday, including: “I feel there isn’t any competitors with him. We’ve to ensure he will get elected.”
Many members of the family have beforehand expressed robust disapproval of Mr. Kennedy’s candidacy. categorical concern about being Selling conspiracy theories and confusion about why he’s difficult a Democratic president they admire. Like many Democrats, they concern he may assist Mr. Trump win if he takes even a small variety of votes away from Mr. Biden in battleground states — contests that had been determined by tens of 1000’s of votes in 2020.
Mr. Trump will possible stay the primary goal of assaults on the Philadelphia occasion, however the symbolic rejection of Mr. Kennedy won’t be refined.
“We will say in the present day with no much less urgency that our rights and freedoms are as soon as once more in danger,” Kerry Kennedy is predicted to say, based on excerpts from her speech shared by the Biden marketing campaign. “That’s the reason we should all come collectively in a marketing campaign that ought to unite not simply Democrats however all Individuals, together with Republicans and independents, who imagine in what Lincoln referred to as the higher angels of our nature.”
The household telegraphed their 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 nice to have you ever all again within the White Home,” Mr. Biden wrote on social media.
Additionally members of the Kennedy household denounced an advert {that a} tremendous PAC supporting Mr. Kennedy ran throughout the Tremendous Bowl. The advert carefully resembled a spot supporting John F. Kennedy, his uncle, in his bid for the White Home in 1960.
With the election nonetheless months away and Mr. Kennedy nonetheless looking for poll entry in lots of states, it’s laborious to say whether or not he would get extra votes from Mr. Trump’s or Mr. Biden’s camp. However polls counsel Mr. Trump’s assist base is way firmer than Mr. Biden’s, that means it is attainable among the president’s voters might be open to an alternate.
The Democratic Occasion has assembled a workforce of attorneys to focus on this Pursuing Mr. Kennedy’s menace, particularly in contested states. The group can even attempt to counter different potential spoilers reminiscent of Cornel West, a progressive educational looking for the presidency, and the Inexperienced Occasion.
Democrats have already witnessed the failure of a third-party try that they had been watching nervously: the centrist group No Labels, which had tried to subject a average politician with nationwide recognition as a substitute for Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump. Introduced earlier this month that it will hand over its try.
Mr. Kennedy represents a hodgepodge of political positions that aren’t simply categorized by ideology. He has expressed liberal views on abortion, the surroundings and revenue inequality, however has additionally promoted false theories in regards to the security of vaccines and made arguments extra widespread on the best.
This month, he questioned the Justice Division’s efforts to prosecute those that rioted on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, downplaying the severity of the assault. Additionally his marketing campaign dismiss a advisor who prompt that supporting Mr. Kennedy would assist Mr. Trump defeat Mr. Biden.
Nonetheless, Mr. Trump has signaled that he, too, believes Mr. Kennedy could also be turning voters away from his marketing campaign. He Posted Final month, he wrote on social media that Mr. Kennedy was “extra radical left” than Mr. Biden, portraying him as a liberal Democrat in disguise. However so has Mr. Trump privately expressed intrigue with the concept of selecting Mr. Kennedy as his working mate – an concept that these near him contemplate unrealistic and that Mr. Kennedy himself rejected.
Mr Biden’s rally in Philadelphia is the final main cease on a three-day tour of Pennsylvania. Throughout the journey he laid out his financial and tax agenda, repeatedly attacking Mr. Trump as rich, out of contact and enemy of working individuals.
Members of the Kennedy household showing on the rally are anticipated to reference Robert F. Kennedy, Mr. Kennedy’s father.
“I can solely think about how horrified Donald Trump’s outrageous lies and conduct would have horrified my father, Robert F. Kennedy, who proudly served as Lawyer Common of america and saved his promise to uphold the legislation and defend the nation.” stated Kerry Kennedy will say based on her ready remarks. “Dad stood for equal justice, human rights and freedom from hardship and concern. Identical to President Biden is doing in the present day.”
After Mr. Biden speaks, members of the Kennedy household will name voters and knock on doorways, the Biden marketing campaign stated.