CNN anchor Erin Burnett had an important message for those who think former President Trump’s recent endorsement from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. isn’t a big deal.
Kennedy, who has been a Democrat all his life, surprised many on Friday by announcing he was ending his independent presidential campaign and supporting Trump instead of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Burnett explained why this is significant, especially in key states that could decide the election. “Kennedy is getting five or six percent of the vote in swing states,” Burnett said on her show Friday night. “That might not seem like much, but in these states, it could make all the difference. It’s more than the margin between Harris and Trump in some of those places.”
She pointed to a recent poll from The New York Times and Siena College, which showed Kennedy with 6% support in Arizona and Nevada and 5% in Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
Kennedy appeared with Trump at a rally in Glendale, Arizona, where he was warmly welcomed by the crowd. This endorsement could be a game-changer in an election where every vote counts.
Kennedy, who is the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, started his presidential run as a Democrat challenging President Biden. However, after feeling pushed out by the Democratic Party, he decided to run as an independent. Now, his decision to support Trump has shifted the focus away from Harris, who had just officially accepted the Democratic nomination.
During his speech withdrawing from the race, Kennedy criticized the mainstream media, accusing them of working with the Democratic Party to ignore him and boost Harris. He pointed out that while Ross Perot, another independent candidate in 1992, was given 34 interviews on major networks, Kennedy only received two live interviews in 16 months. He accused these networks of running negative stories about him and working with the DNC to keep him off the debate stage.