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Mike Rowe confirms RFK Jr. is considering him as his running mate: ‘It’s a weird world’

March 16, 2024 | | Print Article

Vice President Mike Rowe.

After Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, it has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

And surely the conservative Rowe is qualified. After all, can there be any dirtier job than D.C. politics? It could happen.

Speaking with CNN on Thursday, the “Dirty Jobs” host confirmed that Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called him up to discuss just that.

“It’s a weird world, man,” Rowe told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

(Video: YouTube)

Also on Thursday, Kennedy announced he would be revealing his choice of vice presidential running mate at an event in Oakland, Calif., on March 26.

Reportedly on Kennedy’s shortlist, in addition to Rowe, are NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers; former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura; former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who, like Kennedy, famously ditched the Democratic Party; Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul; motivational speaker Tony Robbins; Civil Rights attorney Tricia Lindsay; and former Democrat and one-time presidential hopeful Andrew Yang, founder of the Forward Party.

According to The New York Times, Gabbard, Paul, and Yang “have turned him down, or their conversations have not advanced, except for Mr. Rodgers and Mr. Ventura.”

“Boarding a flight at DFW,” Rowe wrote Wednesday on X. “Just saw this on a monitor. Airports are funny places…”

“Yeah, he called,” Rowe told Burnett. “Actually, I ran into him about six months ago in Dallas, totally serendipitously, and we exchanged information and he reached out about a month ago.”

During the meeting, the Emmy Award-winning host said he and Kennedy discussed Rowe’s foundation, mikeroweWorks, which grants scholarships through his Work Ethic Scholarship Program “to help people get trained for skilled jobs that are in demand.”

“At some point, he asked me if I would ever consider running for public office, and I spit my coffee back into my cup and said, ‘Seriously?'” Rowe said.

Kennedy wasn’t kidding.

“For the first time in my life, I found myself having kind of a really serious conversation about what that even means,” Rowe said, adding that it was “unexpected.”

Kennedy is “very gracious,” according to Rowe, “and he’s very smart and he’s very direct, and I had no idea what I was really walking into.”

“But his team was there,” he continued, “and they were also super inquisitive. They listened more than they talked.”

“I wound up interviewing him. He interviewed me. We had a few laughs,” he recalled. “It was a very friendly, very casual conversation.”

“But he’s serious,” Rowe added. “And when he talks about the things he’s serious about, he leans in, and it’s hard not to listen.”

And one thing Kennedy is serious about, according to the contender, is the debt.

“He doesn’t want to see 34 trillion get to 50,” Rowe said.

The candidate is also serious about “ending forever wars” and “waging a war on chronic disease.”

“We don’t agree on everything, that’s for sure,” Rowe acknowledged. “And when that became apparent, he just laughed and said, ‘Look, I don’t want to surround myself with yes men and yes women. I want people who care about the country. I want people who tell me the truth as they see it and let the chips fall.'”

On X, many are cheering the thought of Rowe as veep.

“This is the man I want as Vice President! A working man, not afraid to get dirty & do a hard days work!” exclaimed Michigan State Rep. candidate, Bryce Lipscomb. “Mike Rowe is the quintessential blue collar worker, he has earned their trust and admiration.”

“Rowe has something not even [Robert Kennedy Jr.] has,” Lipscomb stated, “a stellar reputation with every voting bloc!”

 

Melissa Fine
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