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Former President Donald Trump is known for his constant and sometimes personal attacks on key rivals, such as President Joe Biden. Recently, he has intensified this approach to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Mr. Trump this week posted a roughly four-minute video calling Mr. Kennedy a bogus Democratic candidate and a "radical left-wing liberal" who has been put out as a candidate to help the Democratic president. Former President Trump attacked all members of the Kennedy family, calling them "a bunch of crazy people".
"He's not a Republican, so I don't think you can vote for him and feel good," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee told supporters on the Truth Social network.
Making such scathing attacks on Mr. Kennedy could be a signal of concern on the part of Mr. Trump and his campaign team about Mr. Kennedy running as an independent in a race that is expected to be close and when a third candidate could attract enough votes to damage one of the leading candidates.
As we are six months away from Election Day, in which Americans have expressed their displeasure at a Trump-Biden rematch, Mr. Kennedy has offered himself as an alternative. Some of the issues he's focused on, such as staunch support for Israel and criticism of the containment measures put in place for the pandemic, may be more appealing to conservative voters than Democrats.
Polls so far show that far more Republicans than Democrats have a favorable opinion of Mr. Kennedy, although many Americans do not know enough about what he stands for. In a February poll by the Center for Public Affairs Studies of the Associated Press news agency, more than half of Republicans, 53%, have a more favorable opinion of Mr. Kennedy, compared with 30% of Democrats. About a quarter of voters from both parties said they didn't know enough about him.
Mr. Kennedy's campaign team says he is a danger to both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, who enjoys the support of some members of the Kennedy family himself and calls their endorsement of his candidacy a "tremendous honor." President Biden generally does not mention Mr. Kennedy, who in the past has challenged him as a candidate within the Democratic Party before starting the campaign as an independent candidate.
Mr. Kennedy has also challenged Mr. Trump, asking him to hold a debate during an event where they will both participate, albeit on different days.
However, Mr Kennedy has tough challenges ahead.
As an independent candidate, his name cannot automatically appear on the ballot. He had to work hard to secure signatures to run in all 50 states, a process he has said he will complete by the summer. According to his electoral team, he has already achieved this in five states, in California, Dellauer, Michigan, Oklahoma and Utah, and has collected signatures for eight more states. In some of these states, election officials have not yet managed to verify the signatures.
Mr. Kennedy says his strong showing in some national polls gives him reason to consider himself a contender, although such polls are generally unreliable this early in the election.
In addition to their differences, there are some issues on which Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Trump seem to be on the same page.
Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Kennedy is a staunch supporter of Israel in its fight against Hamas. In April, he suggested that the investigation and prosecution of those who participated in the violent attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, may be politically motivated. This stance puts him in line with Mr. Trump and his allies.
Mr. Kennedy, however, also criticized Mr. Trump, saying that the attack on the Capitol was done with the "encouragement" of Mr. Trump and "in the context of his illusion that the election was stolen from him." However, Mr. Kennedy has said that if he were to become president, he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether Mr. Trump was politically selected to be investigated.
Mr. Kennedy has also accused Mr. Trump of economic damage to the middle class. Mr Kennedy called the lockdown measures during the pandemic "the worst thing he did for the country", although he admitted in the same speech that former President Trump "is blamed for a lot of things he didn't do". / VOA
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