Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Sunday blamed "16 months of censorship" for his decision to suspend his presidential race and endorse former President Donald Trump's reelection bid.
"It became clear to me that I did not have a path to victory," Kennedy told "Fox News Sunday" host Shannon Bream while arguing that the lack of interviews with major networks led his campaign to fail to gain ground.
"When Ross Perot ran, in the 10 months that he ran, he had 34 appearances on the networks," said Kennedy. "I had two appearances in 16 months, so I was blocked out of the networks, and I was blocked out of the debate. I had no path to victory."
Meanwhile, Kennedy said Trump had been "reaching out" to his campaign and that they had spoken "just a few hours" after the assassination attempt against the former president in July.
"He invited me to form a unity government," Kennedy said. "We agreed that we'd be able to continue to criticize each other on the issues where we don't agree, but these issues are so important, and they're a way of unifying the country."
Those issues, he said, include ending the Ukraine war, promoting children's health, and ending the Ukraine war.
Kennedy officially announced Friday he was withdrawing from the race.
He spoke at a news conference in Phoenix, accusing the Democratic Party of waging "continual legal warfare" against him and Trump and of conducting a "sham" primary election that blocked his chances of winning the White House.
Kennedy told Fox Sunday, meanwhile, that there have been no commitments between himself and Trump over a potential Cabinet position, but that they "just made a general commitment" to work together.
Kennedy said that he is pulling out of 10 swing states where his presence would have helped Democrat nominee Kamala Harris but harmed Trump.
"Then we will stay on the ballots in the other 30 states and I'm encouraging people to vote for me in those states," said Kennedy, explaining they are all blue states where his presence won't change the outcome of the race.
Reports last week said that Kennedy reached out to the Harris campaign to discuss a potential administration role if she wins, and he told Fox News Sunday that he reached out to her campaign "the same" as he did with Trump's.
"We actually talked to other presidential candidates, including the Libertarian Party about figuring out how we could end the polarization and the hatred and vitriol and start talking about issues," Kennedy said.
He added that he was willing to listen to the Democrats and whether they would do something about the "epidemic of chronic disease that has disabled about 60% of our kids … it's hard to find a kid today that's not damaged by it, and it's coming from our food supply, from pollution in our environment, and toxins in our environment, and mainly from corruption in our government that allows it to happen."
Meanwhile, members of Kennedy's family have spoken out against his endorsement of Trump, and he noted that President Joe Biden has been a family friend for many years.
"I love my family," he said. "I feel like we were raised where we were encouraged to debate each other and debate ferociously and passionately about things but to still love each other."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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