(NewsNation) — Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is holding an event Friday in Phoenix where he will discuss the future of his campaign and, per multiple reports, possibly endorse Republican nominee Donald Trump.
NewsNation has not confirmed Kennedy’s plans, but Trump told the network Kennedy’s endorsement would be a “great honor.”
“If he wants to endorse me, I have good respect for him,” Trump told NewsNation on Thursday. “Smart guy, a little different, but very smart.”
The Phoenix event comes a day after Kennedy filed paperwork in Arizona to remove his name from the ballot there.
Earlier this week, Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, opened the door of the independent dropping out of the race when she mentioned the option during a podcast interview.
Shanahan said that rather than allow the election cycle to play out, Kennedy could choose to drop out and “join forces” with Trump. Trump said he would be open to providing Kennedy with a Cabinet position in the Trump administration should he win a return to the White House in November. Kennedy reportedly had also been seeking a Cabinet position from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Multiple media outlets, including NewsNation, reported that Kennedy had reached out to Harris seeking a meeting about a possible appointment should she be elected. However, no meeting took place, leading Kennedy to turn his attention to Trump.
In an interview with CNN this week, Trump referred to Kennedy as a “brilliant guy” and a “smart guy” whom Trump said he respects.
“I didn’t know he was thinking about getting out,” Trump said in the interview. “But if he’s thinking about getting out, certainly, I’d be open to (offering a Cabinet role).”
After the Shanahan interview, Kennedy’s campaign announced that Kennedy would speak to the nation Friday from Phoenix to address his political future.
Friday’s announcement comes 10 months after Kennedy declared he would run for president in the 2024 race as an independent. Kennedy had previously entered the race as a Democrat but failed to gain traction against President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the race in July in favor of Harris.
RFK Jr.’s fight for ballot positioning
Kennedy, who had been a lifelong Democrat before shifting to running for president as an independent, failed to earn a spot in the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden.
Before shifting his party affiliation, an Emerson College poll conducted in August 2023 found that Biden has the backing of 61% of likely Democratic voters, with Kennedy at 12% and Marianne Williamson in third place with 4%. Undecided voters account for 23%.
The son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of John F. Kennedy, Kennedy claimed that CNN and the Democratic and Republican parties had conspired together to keep him from joining Trump and Biden on the debate stage.
His campaign sent out an email to supporters claiming that the two presidential candidates feared that his participation in the debate could “catapult” Kennedy into the national spotlight that would create “devastating consequences” for the two major political parties.
CNN cited Kennedy’s failure to meet polling and state balloting requirements to participate in a debate with Trump and Biden.
Instead, Kennedy hosted what he called “The Real Debate” on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and answered questions posed to Trump and Biden in real time.
He also joined NewsNation’s postdebate coverage in which he answered questions about the 2024 race. Before the debate, Kennedy wrote on X that 70% of Americans want a different choice than Biden or Trump, adding, “They’re tired of voting for the lesser of two evils.”
RFK Jr.’s NewsNation town hall
Kennedy participated in a town hall hosted by NewsNation in July 2023, when Kennedy was still seeking to earn the Democratic nod and asking voters to choose him over a sitting president.
“I’m running because I feel like my party has lost its way,” Kennedy said in the town hall. “The values that my uncle represented and that my father represented when they were Democrats have been neglected. I want to try to bring the Democratic Party back to those values.”
Kennedy said that those values focus on the middle class, on labor, on the well-being of minorities and the environment, as well as on civil liberties and free speech, which he said Democrats seemed to have forgotten about.
Where RFK Jr. stands on the issues
Kennedy, who referred to the Trump-Biden debate as “depressing,” has taken a stance on several key issues facing voters.
Among them, Kennedy said abortion should remain the choice of a woman and that state intervention on the issue should not happen until a fetus reaches viability. Kennedy has also said he does not support late-term abortions but also said that “every abortion is a tragedy.”
“My policy is more choices, less abortions,” Kennedy said.
On the matter of inflation, Kennedy said he would enact policies that favor small and medium businesses and that break up “too big to fail” businesses and monopolies.
On the border crisis, Kennedy agreed with Trump, saying Biden’s order to end the construction of the border wall and his dismantling of other security measures allowed for mass border crossings. Kennedy described seeing hundreds of people cross the border, a seemingly “hopeless” situation he said was “created by the federal government, that local people are being forced to hold the bag on.”
On the matter of Social Security, Kennedy vowed to cut military spending in half to put money into government-subsidized child care and Social Security funding.
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