Donald Trump Jr. reportedly accused Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of being a Democrat plant Thursday, saying the only reason Kennedy ended his challenge to President Joe Biden and run as an independent in 2024 was to hurt the former president's chances of winning the election.
The Democratic National Committee gave no credence to Kennedy's bid to challenge Biden in the primaries, which Kennedy, son of the late U.S. senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, said is a reason he chose to run as an independent.
"The DNC meshed their offices, their fundraising, their strategic operations with the president's," Kennedy told Newsmax on Oct. 10. "So, there was no difference between President Biden's campaign and the DNC."
But a recent poll showed Kennedy might pull votes from the former president in the general election. A Suffolk University/USA TODAY national poll released Monday showed Biden and Trump tied at 37% each in a four-way race with Kennedy (13%) and Cornel West (4%), with 8% undecided. But with Kennedy out of the picture, the poll showed Trump with a 41%-39% lead over Biden, with West at 7%, and 10% undecided.
By removing West and leaving Kennedy in, Biden leads Trump 38%-37%, with Kennedy at 14%, and 9% undecided, the poll shows.
"It legitimately always felt like it was a Democrat plant to hurt the Trump thing," Trump Jr. said to campaign volunteers in Iowa on Thursday, according to NBC News. "He wouldn't be there if the Democrats didn't want him."
Kennedy, a longtime environmental activist and lawyer, has voiced disgust in the country's two-party system, and his stance against the COVID-19 vaccine could be a draw to some moderate Republicans. Still, Kennedy's stances on abortion rights, gun rights, and immigration mirror the liberalism of today's Democratic Party.
"He should be much more of a threat to Joe Biden than to us," Trump Jr. said. "Once you actually look at his voting record, you're like, no, he's just a liberal that is anti-vax. Being anti-vax, I don't think that's enough."