News/Commentary

Tucker, failed assassination were factors in uneasy Trump-RFK Jr alliance that almost wasn’t

September 4, 2024 | | Print Article

The start of former President Donald Trump’s partnership with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. began immediately after the assassination attempt on his life back in mid-July.

Three hours after the shooting, one of RFK’s advisers, Calley Means, called him and asked if he’d consider uniting with Trump and running as his running mate. Kennedy immediately said no and the call ended, according to the New York Times.

A short while later, RFK called back and said he’d at least speak with Trump. And thus began “a six-week crush of behind-the-scenes discussions, embarrassing missteps, secret meetings, and private misgivings, culminating in Mr. Kennedy’s suspending his campaign and backing Mr. Trump,” according to the Times.

Many figures played a role in the discussions, including the adviser, Calley Means; RFK’s campaign manager, Amaryllis Fox; Trump’s top adviser, Susie Wiles; Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.; and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.

The discussions were slowed only by the concerns of critics, including RFK’s wife, Cheryl Hines.

“In conversations … Ms. Hines and others close to Mr. Kennedy cautioned that Mr. Trump was untrustworthy,” the Times notes. “As they saw it, Mr. Trump had left him hanging before: In January 2017, Mr. Kennedy told reporters that Mr. Trump, then the president-elect, had asked him to lead a vaccine safety commission. Hours later, Mr. Trump’s aides distanced themselves from the idea. The incident still stung.”

“They also wondered whether some of Mr. Kennedy’s supporters would balk at the idea of his working with Mr. Trump, whose administration gutted environmental protections, empowered big corporations, and pursued other measures at odds with Mr. Kennedy’s most cherished causes,” according to the Times.

But on the other side, some of RFK’s advisers eventually began realizing that he was gaining zero traction in the race. This became especially evident when, following President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump in June, Kennedy didn’t experience a surge in support from disaffected Democrats.

“They realized he had no more support to peel from the Democrats — and the Democratic leadership had shown no interest in a partnership,” according to the Times. “For some of Mr. Kennedy’s allies, it was a reckoning that the only path forward lay with Mr. Trump.”

Speaking on NewsNation’s “CUOMO” this week, RFK confirmed the hopelessness that had begun to overtake his campaign around that time but also pointed to his desire to not see Vice President Kamala Harris become president.

Listen:

(Video Credit: NewsNation)

“Well, it became clear to me, that I was not going to be allowed on the debating stage, which was really my only path to victory,” he said. “I had no way to grow, and our polling was showing that if I stayed in the race, Vice President Harris would win, and I did not want that outcome.”

Why not?

“I don’t think that Vice President Harris is a worthy president of this country,” he explained. “I think we need to have a president who can give an interview, who can articulate a vision, who can put together an English sentence, who can articulate her and defend her policies and her record, and who can engage in a debate with, and regular debates unscripted appearances, President or Vice President.”

“Harris’s speech at the convention made it very clear that she will continue the warfare state that she is, that she’s bragging about how she sees warfare as a tool, as the frontline tool of American foreign policy,” he added.

Dovetailing back to the days before the alliance took hold, Trump and RFK finally met in person in Milwaukee on July 15th.

But then something extraordinary happened. A part of their previous phone discussion was leaked to the media, which in turn prompted distrust of RFK from Trump and his team. After that, “communication between the two camps went cold.”

Part of the reason for this was because Trump was on cloud nine at the time. He’d just crushed Biden in the debate, accepted the Republican nomination, and was cruising toward a total victory. But then Biden suddenly dropped out and endorsed Harris, which changed everything.

Two weeks later, conversations resumed, the alliance was consolidated, RFK formally endorsed Trump, and, most amazingly of all, Kennedy wasn’t even guaranteed a specific position.

“We’re not talking about a particular position for me in the government,” he told NewsNation. “What the agreement was about, what our agreement about it is about a Unity Party, about unifying our party over certain objectives, and this will allow me to continue to disagree with President Trump on issues that I don’t agree with him on, and him to disagree with me.”

“The issues that we agreed on were ending the war, ending The censorship in the surveillance state, and ending this war on our children, the chronic disease epidemic,” he added.

Vivek Saxena
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