‘Leaving nothing to chance’: Biden and his allies seek to hobble RFK Jr.

President Joe Biden’s campaign and Democratic allies, anxiously eyeing third-party threats, are mounting an aggressive effort to neutralize Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The Democratic National Committee has built out a first-of-its-kind unit, hiring staffers specifically dedicated to disabling Kennedy and other third-party candidates. They’ve filed Federal Elections Commission complaints against Kennedy and his allies, while accusing him of being funded by Republican mega donors. Democratic outside groups are also working to dig up dirt on Kennedy and his newly named running mate, Nicole Shanahan, a wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist.

In the Biden campaign’s latest move, members of the extended Kennedy clan “pledged our unwavering support” to Biden over Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said RFK Jr.’s sister Kerry Kennedy in a speech at a campaign event in Philadelphia on Thursday. So far, the Kennedys, descendents of one of the most beloved Democratic presidents, have largely shunned their family member, some of them calling his campaign “dangerous.”

But the formal endorsement, which featured more than a dozen Kennedy family members, takes that push back a step further.

“We want to make crystal clear our feeling that the best way forward for America is to re-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to four more years,” Kerry Kennedy said, who led a chant of “four more years.” Her brother, however, went unmentioned by name in her speech.

Biden, for his part, called it “an incredible honor to have the support of the Kennedy family.” He noted that a bust of Robert F. Kennedy, one of his “heroes,” is currently displayed inside the Oval Office, alongside Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Kennedy family’s endorsement is part of a broader, all-party effort to attack the RFK Jr.’s campaign, which Biden aides and Democratic allies see as a threat to his election. Democrats acknowledge that in a race that could be decided by thousands of votes in a few states, they’re not taking any chances with third-party candidates, which include Kennedy, Cornel West and Jill Stein.

“He’s a guy with a famous last name, so he can be dangerous and he can pull voters, who are not particularly engaged, away from Joe Biden,” said Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge, one of the Democratic groups focused on opposition research against RFK Jr.

But Dennis said that when voters “are educated about who [Kennedy] is, about his conspiracy-minded nature, then [Donald] Trump is in trouble” because then those voters are then drawn to the former president, instead of Biden, so “that’s why we’re helping to make sure the electorate knows who RFK Jr. is.”

Kennedy, for his part, said he was “pleased” his family is politically active, “it’s a family tradition.”

“We are divided in our opinions but united in our love for each other,” Kennedy said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

It’s not just Democrats who are concerned about Kennedy’s ability to affect the race. Trump has repeatedly called Kennedy “the most radical liberal” on his social media platform Truth Social. That prompted Kennedy to claim that Trump’s team asked him to consider joining the former president’s ticket. A Trump adviser denied Kennedy’s story.

Kennedy’s impact on the race is clear in public polling. Kennedy consistently polls in the high single digits in national surveys, as he siphons off support from both Biden and Trump. For example, a late March Quinnipiac poll found Biden leading Trump by 3 points in a head-to-head matchup. But Trump took a 1-point lead over Biden when third-party candidates were added, who drew 13 percentage points of support. However, it was primarily Stein and West who hurt Biden.

“It’s important for a well-resourced campaign to leave nothing on the table, and that includes talking to voters who are pausing and curious about Kennedy, but who are actually going to find him unpalatable when they find out who he is,” said Margie Omero, a Democratic pollster. “A challenge would be to have people ascribe whatever qualities they want to him as a third-party candidate.”

“The issue here is leaving nothing to chance,” Omero added.

Kennedy has leaned into his family’s history as a means for attracting support. A pro-Kennedy super PAC aired a $7 million ad during this year’s Super Bowl that used a 1960 ad from his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, as an identical template for it, drafting off Kennedy-era nostalgia.

Bobby Shriver, one of RFK Jr.’s cousins, pushed back on the ad at the time, for using “our uncle’s faces — and my Mother’s. She would be appalled by his deadly health care views.”

Nearly 50 of the Kennedys appeared at a St. Patrick’s Day event at the White House last month, a show of force that foreshadowed a formal endorsement of the president.