Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. tackled dismissed concerns about his new vice presidential pick and dished on whether he would run as part of the Libertarian Party.
In an appearance on NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” the 2024 contender also called out the “agenda” of the mainstream media, saying he has not been given fair coverage as he runs for office.
Kennedy spoke with host Chris Cuomo in the wide-ranging interview before taking viewer questions on various issues, expounding at one point on how to combat “misinformation” as he contends he is routinely not given a live platform by major media outlets.
“CNN has an agenda. MSNBC has an agenda. Fox News has an agenda,” he said, explaining how he has not been invited to make many live media appearances while adding that NewsNation “plays it pretty much straight up and down the line.”
Kennedy believes Americans’ “appetite” for straight news reporting is “getting greater and greater,” and explained he reaches more people through his podcasts.
Cuomo asked the candidate about his choice of lawyer and tech entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as his running mate, noting that she “checks a lot of boxes but none that would make her able to run the country” if anything were to happen to him. Kennedy’s announcement sparked mixed reactions with many Democrats voicing their displeasure almost immediately.
Kennedy began by claiming Shanahan “probably has a higher IQ than almost anybody who I’ve seen in public life today.”
“She’s an expert on AI, which we need in the government right now. She’s an expert on chronic disease, which is probably arguably our biggest issue in this country,” he contended, asking why “nobody is talking about” the health issues plaguing Americans.
“And it is costing us 4.3 trillion a year. Three times our defense budget,” he said of chronic diseases. “You know, people have said to me, well, you should have brought an insider in as VP, no, the insider was the one who gave us the chronic disease epidemic. They gave us a 34 trillion dollar debt. President Bush, President Biden, and President Trump during their two short times in office single term, each together drove up a larger debt than every president since George Washington combined and Congress let them do it.”
“It’s not somebody inside who’s going to solve the problem. They are the ones who gave us the problem. We need somebody who can think about it in a different way,” he told Cuomo.
As the topic of health inevitably turned to COVID and how the nation shut down during the global pandemic, Kennedy criticized President Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump as “two presidents who made a series of bad choices, drove up a $16 trillion dollars in costs, destroyed an entire generation of kids.”
“You do not shut down a country for a respiratory illness because everybody knows it’s going to go through anyway,” he argued, prompting Cuomo to surprisingly come to the defense of Trump, saying, “You’ve got to give him a little break on that.”
The duo also tackled the issue of party affiliation and whether the former Democrat needs to be on the Libertarian ticket in order to be on ballots in every state.
“I do get this question from every reporter, you know, what are you going to do if you don’t get on the ballot? I say the same thing every time. I say we’re going to be on the ballot in every state, all 50 states and the District of Columbia. I’m not saying that to spin something or, you know, to feed you a line. I’m saying it because it’s going to happen and it’s going to happen very, very quickly. Oh, just, you know, give us about eight weeks,” Kennedy predicted.
“I’m very aligned with the libertarians on a lot of issues. I love libertarians. I love the way they think about liberty. I think it’s really critical and important. And I think on eighty percent of the issues, I’m aligned with eighty percent of libertarians,” Kennedy said. “And so I do like the idea of running on their on their line. And we’ve talked about it and toyed with it and talked to them about it. But we don’t need to do that. We’re not going to aid any political party. We’re going to make it on our own.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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