President Joe Biden has liberally plagiarized the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and he’s avoided a debate with presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Now, Biden is letting the Kennedys speak — at least, some of them.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden accepted an endorsement from at least 15 Kennedys, with Kerry Kennedy taking the most vocal role during the campaign event in Philadelphia.
“The best way forward for America is to re-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to four more years,” Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of RFK, said at the event. “Every single grandchild of Joe and Rose Kennedy supports Joe Biden… The Kennedy family endorses Joe Biden for president… We are so happy today to pledge our unwavering support to President Joe Biden and President Kamala Harris.
Of course, not every grandchild of Rose Kennedy supports Biden. Kerry’s brother, Robert, is running against Biden! Plus, Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, has yet to endorse anyone.
However, Kerry avoided mentioning her brother’s third-party campaign. She discouraged Americans from voting third-party or withholding their votes in protest.
“In 2024, there are only two candidates with any chance of winning the presidency. In this election, no American can stand aside. We must vote,” Kerry said.
“President Biden has said very movingly that his long career in public service was prompted by a speech my father Robert Kennedy gave in Indianapolis in 1968… [My father] showed us that, when everyone else is running away from the flames of anguish and despair, leaders run toward them. That’s who Joe Biden is. He is the first sitting president in our history who has traveled to an active war zone not under U.S. control.”
Take a look —
Biden took the stage after Kerry to accept the endorsement.
“It’s an incredible honor to receive the endorsement of your family,” Biden said, praising her “friendship.”
Biden accepted this big-name endorsement six months before the election. By comparison, former President Barack Obama accepted Bill Clinton’s endorsement three months before the election.
In other words, Biden is scrambling, and the Democrats have noticed.
The Democratic National Committee has hired a communications team to combat the appeal of third-party candidates, Kennedy Jr. first among them. The DNC also filed a recent Federal Election Commission complaint against Kennedy Jr.’s campaign, accusing it of coordinating too closely with an affiliated super PAC to get his name on the presidential ballot in some states.
Kennedy Jr. is also viewed warily by the Trump campaign. While Trump has released a recent video saying, “If I were a Democrat, I’d vote for RFK Jr. every single time over Biden,” he has sometimes criticized Kennedy Jr. as being more “radical left” than Biden.
Democrat strategist Lis Smith said that Kennedy Jr. was pulling slightly more from Biden than Trump. Smith told The New York Times, “It’s very hard to gauge the impact, but it does seem like he pulls from both, and right now — emphasis on ‘right now’ — slightly more from Biden.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.