by Mary Lou Masters
Members of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s family are set to support President Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign on Thursday rather than endorsing the independent candidate, according to multiple outlets.
The endorsements follow Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) ramping up efforts to combat what they view as the threat Kennedy and other third-party candidates could have on the president’s reelection bid. Kennedy’s siblings — Kerry, Rory, Joseph, Kathleen, Christopher and Maxwell — will throw their support behind Biden at a campaign event in Philadelphia alongside nine of their other family members, multiple outlets reported.
“We can say today, with no less urgency, that our rights and freedoms are once again in peril,” Kerry Kennedy will say, according to the outlets. “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.”
Former Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III, who now serves as the Biden administration’s special envoy to Northern Ireland, will reportedly introduce the president. Family members will proceed to knock doors and make phone calls to assist in the Biden campaign’s efforts after the remarks, according to the reports.
The independent candidate reacted to the news in a post on X, where he said “we are divided in our opinions but united in our love for each other.”
“I hold this as a possibility for America too. Can we disagree without hating our opponents? Can we restore civility and respect to public discourse? I think we can,” Kennedy wrote. “My campaign, which many of my family members are working on and supportive of, is about healing America — healing our economy, our chronic disease crisis, our middle class, our environment, and our standing in the world as a peaceful nation.”
“But this will only happen if we heal our national conversation, and move from rage and fear into love and respect,” Kennedy added.
Democrats fear that Kennedy’s independent candidacy would siphon off more votes from Biden than former President Donald Trump, which is reflected in some recent polling.
Kerry Kennedy is expected to warn about what she perceives as the dangers of another Trump presidency, according to the outlets.
“I can only imagine how Donald Trump’s outrageous lies and behavior would have horrified my father, Robert F. Kennedy, who proudly served as Attorney General of the United States, and honored his pledge to uphold the law and protect the country,” Kerry Kennedy will say, according to the outlets. “President Biden has been a champion for all the rights and freedoms that my father and uncles stood for.”
The independent candidate’s family members have been critical of his presidential run when he initially ran against Biden as a Democrat in April 2023, as well as when he left the party in October 2023. Numerous members of the Kennedy family were pictured with Biden in March, with Kerry Kennedy posting on social media that the president “make[s] the world better.”
Biden’s campaign did not immediately responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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Mary Lou Masters is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
