Kennedy household formally endorses Biden at marketing campaign occasion in newest snub to RFK Jr | EUROtoday

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At least 15 members of the storied Kennedy political household, which produced a president, two senators, and a number of House members for the reason that Fifties, endorsed President Joe Biden for re-election on Thursday over unbiased candidate, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the son of the late New York senator who was killed whereas operating for president in 1968.

Speaking at a Biden marketing campaign occasion on the Martin Luther King Jr Recreation Centre in Philadelphia, Mr Kennedy’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, stated she and her household have been “happy today to pledge our unwavering support to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris” as a result of a vote for the forty sixth president can be “a vote for our democracy and our decency”.

She additionally denounced Mr Biden’s Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump, as “the most anti-democratic president in American history”.

“Donald Trump is running to take us backwards attacking the most basic rights and freedoms that are at the core of who we are as Americans. He’s saying he will be a dictator on day one, even saying he wants to suspend the constitution so he can go after his enemies, after his critics after the press,” she stated, including that Mr Trump, in her estimation, is “running to use his power to punish his enemies, silence his opponents,” and unleash “more chaos, division and political violence with his extreme agenda”.

Ms Kennedy, quoting her father’s 1968 marketing campaign announcement during which he stated he felt “obliged to do all that [he] can” to maintain the nation from falling below the fallacious management, echoed his vow that he couldn’t “stand aside”.

“We are here because we feel obliged to do all that we can. We cannot stand aside in this election. No American can stand aside. We must vote,” she stated.

In what was a tacit rejection of her personal brother — with out mentioning his title — she stated this 12 months’s race options “only two candidates with any chance of winning the presidency”.

She additionally described Mr Biden — not her brother — as a rightful inheritor to her father’s political legacy.

“I can only imagine how Donald Trump’s outrageous lies and behaviour would have horrified my father, Senator Robert F Kennedy who proudly served as the Attorney General of the United States and honoured his pledge to uphold the law and protect the country. Daddy stood for equal justice, for human rights and freedom from want and fear, just as President Biden does today,” she stated.

The Kennedy household has principally rejected the rebel marketing campaign by the environmental lawyer and vaccine skeptic in favour of Mr Biden, who’s solely the second Catholic president, John F Kennedy being the primary.

In what was then an indication of the prevailing sentiment amongst members of the storied Irish-American political clan, a big group of Kennedys appeared with Mr Biden on the White House throughout a St Patrick’s Day celebration in March.

In addition, a number of Kennedy relations are serving in Mr Biden’s administration, together with Caroline — who additionally served as US Ambassador to Japan in the course of the Obama administration — and former Massachusetts Representative Joseph Kennedy III, who now serves as Mr Biden’s Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.

The household’s formal endorsement of the forty sixth president comes as polling between Mr Biden and former President Donald Trump tightens, with RFK Jr’s presence within the race serving as a rising supply of agita amongst Democrats.

According to some polls, a third-party candidate with excessive title recognition comparable to Mr Kennedy might grow to be a spoiler for Mr Biden by pulling away simply sufficient votes for Mr Trump to be victorious in battleground states, permitting him to win the electoral school.

For his half, the president used the marketing campaign cease to hit out at former president Donald Trump’s use of violent political rhetoric and his darkish imaginative and prescient for the United States as he accepted the endorsement of maybe essentially the most well-known household within the historical past of Democratic politics, the Kennedy household.

He warned the raucous crowd that this 12 months’s presidential election shall be a selection between “two fundamentally different visions,” with Mr Trump’s being one among “anger hate revenge and retribution” that embraces “the insurrectionists of January the Sixth”.

Referring to the dual assassinations that took the lives of President John F Kennedy and his brother, the late New York Senator and former US legal professional normal Robert F Kennedy, Mr Biden stated Mr Trump’s “whitewashing” of the Capitol assault and his name for a “bloodbath” if he loses in November have been each “outrageous”.

“I have a very different view of America: One of hope and optimism … optimism of the Bobby Kennedy variety,” he stated.

“I see America when we defend democracy, not diminish it. I see America we protect our freedoms, not take them away. And I see in America where the economy grows and the middle out and the bottom up. And that way the middle class does well and the poor have a shot, and where healthcare is a right, not a privilege”.

Both Republicans and Democrats are involved that with an citizens less-than-enthused concerning the present candidates, third social gathering candidates such Mr Kennedy might be able to seize a small however vital variety of votes from them which might be decisive in November.

In an effort to keep away from such an final result, members of the Kennedy household are planning on making calls and knocking on doorways in help of Mr Biden.

While a small variety of Kennedy relations are usually not selecting to endorse Mr Biden — together with Caroline, the US ambassador, and former NBC News Today present anchor and ex-California First Lady turned nonprofit chief Maria Shriver, the Biden marketing campaign has attributed their stance to the nonpolitical nature of their engagements, to not help for his opponent.

During a Thursday look on MSNBC forward of the Philadelphia occasion, Kerry Kennedy stated Mr Biden’s re-election marketing campaign was “about democracy … about freedom,” and “about the people of America, not only our country but all around the world”.

“ And that’s why it’s so, so important for every single person to come out and vote … If everybody votes, Biden wins. But right now, this is going to be a very, very close election,” she stated.

“We can’t have people voting for third parties no matter who they are,” she added. “In every family … Americans have diverse views. You have to love your family members. You don’t have to like them. I love Bobby, and I like Bobby. But this campaign is not about Bobby, this campaign is about Trump versus Biden. And what we need to do today is focus on Biden winning.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report