(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) Insurgent Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has acknowledged that he may look into “other alternatives” if party bigwigs manipulate the primary process for Joe Biden.
The other alternatives that he alluded to during a recent 30-minute interview with Forbes presumably include running in the November 2024 general election as a third-party candidate.
The context for his remarks appears to be the decision by the Democratic National Committee to change the presidential primary calendar.
For diversity-related reasons, the DNC designated South Carolina as the first 2024 primary.
If state Democrats in New Hampshire (and/or Iowa) go forward with the traditional schedule, they apparently will be deemed non-compliant.
In the interview, RFK Jr. discussed what he considers the potential for voter disenfranchisement given that the party establishment wants to coronate Biden without given Democrats a meaningful way to consider anyone else.
In so doing, the scenario “makes it almost impossible to have democracy function,” he claimed.
“So two of the things they’ve done…is they’ve moved the Iowa primary — they made rules that if anybody campaigns in Iowa, or any candidate sets foot in the state of Iowa or sets foot in the state of New Hampshire, then none of the votes that are cast for that candidate will be tallied,” Kennedy said.
He further explained that “In other words any delegate that I win in New Hampshire or Iowa would go instead to the president. And now they’re trying to change it so that if I campaign in New Hampshire, that none of the votes cast for me in Georgia will count. That’s significant because it’s hard to win the nomination without Georgia.”
RFK also lamented that his task is even more difficult in that so-called superdelegates are in the tank for the Biden reelection effort.
This scenario is playing out despite Biden’s unpopularity and an apparent feeling among rank-and-file Democrats that someone else should be their 2024 standard-bearer.
Kennedy vowed, nonetheless, to continue campaigning in New Hampshire and Iowa.
In perhaps a veiled reference to a third-party bid, he also underscored that his candidacy is not merely symbolic.
“If the DNC is gonna make it, it’s gonna rig it, so that it is simply impossible for anybody to challenge President Biden, you know, then I need to look at other alternatives. Because I can’t go back to the people who support me, to my donors, and say, you know…’I’m in this to make a point.’ I need to show them a road to victory.”
Democrats have already ruled out any debates in the primary season and even floated the draconian idea of billing RFK Jr. (or Marianne Williamson, a lesser Biden rival) for the costs of running the primaries.
Earlier in the interview, Kennedy asserted that “it’s a process that is rigged…we’re at a time in American history when a lot of Americans think that democracy is broken, that the political system is rigged…and there’s not really any democracy. And unfortunately, the DNC is taking a lot of steps that confirm that outlook…”
Lifelong liberal RFK Jr., an environmental lawyer, has distinguished himself by his unwillingness to along with the prevailing narrative and has thus gained some crossover appeal.
For example, he opposes the war machine and is an advocate for free speech and health autonomy.
The DNC has scheduled a Thursday meeting in D.C. to finalize various rules.
Kennedy’s campaign manager Dennis Kucinich, the former Ohio congressman, has requested the opportunity to address the group about the primary selection process.
Admitting that he doesn’t yet know what alternatives he might be exploring, Kennedy implied that his campaign strategy going forward depends a lot on what happens at the upcoming DNC meeting.
The campaign also noted that Joe Biden finished last in the New Hampshire primary and fourth in Iowa in 2020.
In a radio interview, MAGA superstar Kari Lake remarked that Kennedy’s third-party candidacy could be a plus for voter integrity.
“When there’s three people, three parties, running in any election, whether it be the senate seat in Arizona, the presidency, it makes it a lot harder for these people to cheat because they don’t know what’s gonna be on the inside of the ballot,” Lake said.
“It might be a Democrat voting, but that Democrat might be voting independent this time around, to vote for RFK Jr., so I think we’re gonna see some dynamics in this election that’s going to make it harder for them to cheat,” she added.
RFK Jr. may not be the only high-profile individual launching a third-party effort. Far-left academic/activist Cornel West is seeking the Green Party nomination for president in 2024.
