Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slammed Vice President Harris’s candidacy Tuesday, saying she is not “a worthy president” while defending his choice to instead endorse former President Trump.
“I don’t think that Vice President Harris is a worthy president of this country,” Kennedy told NewsNation host Chris Cuomo. “I think we need to have a president who can give an interview, who can articulate a vision, who can put together an English sentence, who can articulate her and defend her policies and her record and who can engage in a debate with, and regular debates unscripted appearances, president or vice president.”
Harris has recently faced criticism over her lack of media appearances since replacing President Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, with some arguing she has not clearly laid out her policy visions. She sat alongside her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) for her first major sit-down interview last week with CNN’s Dana Bash, where she survived with no major gaffes and made no major news.
Kennedy announced last month that he would suspend his campaign in the battleground states and put his support behind Trump. In doing so, he ripped the Democratic Party and the media for what he claimed was an unfair treatment of his independent campaign.
“Well, it became clear to me, Chris, that I was not going to be allowed on the debating stage, which was really my only path to victory. I was already being boycotted by all of the mainstream media, by the liberal media,” Kennedy said Tuesday on NewsNation’s “Cuomo.”
He added later, “I had no way to grow, and our polling was showing that if I stayed in the race, Vice President Harris would win, and I did not want that outcome.”
The environmental lawyer last month said he would seek to stay on the ballot in most red and blue states but would attempt to be removed from swing-state ballots where he could make a difference in the White House race.
His name, however, is likely to remain on the ballot in some key states, with officials stating voters will see him appear as a candidate in Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina this November.
“What the irony is, Chris, we have been trying to get on the ballot in every state and we succeeded now in doing that. And now we’re taking ourselves off in the states where we would harm President Trump,” Kennedy said in the interview.
“The Democrat Party, which was suing us to keep us off the ballot in those states, is now suing us to force us to be on the ballot,” he continued. “I mean, it’s, if we’re talking about principles here, you know, I think that we ought to, I ought to be able to be on the ballots where I want to be on and not be on the ballot where I don’t want to be on.”
The recent partnership between Kennedy and Trump has further stoked speculation he could be offered a position within a second Trump administration should he win in November. He appeared with the GOP nominee at an Arizona rally last month, and later revealed he was asked to join the former president’s transition team.
When asked why he believes Trump will give him a position and what that might be, Kennedy said, “I’m not … we’re not talking about a particular position for me in the government.”
“What our agreement [is] about, it’s about a unity party, about unifying our party over certain objectives,” he added. “And this will allow me to continue to disagree with President Trump on issues that I don’t agree with him on, and him to disagree with me.”
The Hill reached out to the Harris campaign for further comment.
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