RFK Jr. plans to drop bid for president and endorse Trump, sources tell NBC News

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a scion of the Kennedy political dynasty whose independent presidential bid was bankrolled by his running mate and dogged by humiliating personal revelations, will drop out of the race and endorse Donald Trump for president, NBC News reports. Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance told NBC News on Wednesday that there has been “a lot of communication back and forth” between Kennedy and the GOP campaign. The end of Kennedy’s bid for president, culminating in an endorsement for Trump, is not entirely unexpected. His running mate, Nicole Shanahan, said in a podcast interview released Tuesday that their campaign was considering exiting the race to help Trump. Later that day, Trump said he would be open to offering Kennedy a role in his administration, though Vance separately suggested that a potential Cabinet position would not be contingent on Kennedy backing the former president. His political agenda also had little impact: As a third-party contender, he put forward a platform that was too haphazard for him to be a movement candidate, and his campaign was too weak for him to be a spoiler. What Kennedy’s candidacy did do was raise his national profile — and deeply damage his already questionable reputation in the public eye. What Kennedy’s candidacy did do was raise his national profile — and deeply damage his already questionable reputation in the public eye. His conspiracy beliefs gained intense scrutiny, and he was publicly snubbed by other Kennedys, with 15 of his family members — including six of his 10 siblings — publicly endorsing Joe Biden before the president dropped out. After a woman who used to babysit his children accused him of sexual assault, saying he had groped her and touched her inappropriately on separate occasions, Kennedy said in response: “I am who I am.” Asked by The Boston Globe whether more women would come forward with sexual misconduct allegations, he said: “We’ll see what happens.” Kennedy also had to deny to Vanity Fair that he once ate a dog and, most recently, revealed that he once dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park as a bizarre joke. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/rfk-jr-to-drop-presidential-race-trump-rcna167602