CNN
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As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sustains his help in public polls and makes regular progress on gaining poll entry in states throughout the nation, his unbiased presidential bid is confounding the marketing campaign of former President Donald Trump and its Republican allies.
In current weeks, Kennedy has gone from a perceived nuisance to a political drawback that the Trump marketing campaign is keen to swiftly extinguish, in response to conversations with a number of individuals near the previous president.
Trump himself has noticeably escalated his assaults on Kennedy in current weeks, together with posting a lengthy video to social media on Thursday that labeled him as a “Democrat plant” who will pull votes away from his marketing campaign to assist President Joe Biden, and urged Republicans to not forged a “wasted protest vote.”
The shift comes as recent polls present that Kennedy might lower into Trump’s help simply as a lot as he might draw votes away from Biden, with the outcomes serving as an obvious warning for Republicans who’ve dismissed the unbiased candidate to this point, the sources say.
The consensus held by Trump’s high advisers and allies had lengthy been that Biden has extra to lose from the presence of independents, and Kennedy particularly, in November. However the former president’s workforce has taken discover of Kennedy’s standing in some state polls and uptick in media consideration, together with common appearances on conservative networks like Newsmax and Fox Information, throughout which he’s overtly courted anti-establishment voters. That’s sparked a extra concerted effort from Republicans to try to stop Kennedy from consuming into any pro-Trump help.
Trump’s advisers and people near the previous president informed CNN they nonetheless view Kennedy as seemingly hurting Biden extra. Nevertheless, they privately acknowledge that his affect on Trump’s candidacy varies on a state-by-state foundation. In addition they dismiss the notion that he could possibly be perceived as a severe risk to the previous president, however they argue their elevated assaults towards Kennedy are extra an effort to halt any consideration from present or potential Trump supporters from casting their vote for the unbiased candidate.
“RFK is an issue, not a risk,” one senior Trump adviser informed CNN, who singled out Pennsylvania as one vital battleground state the place Kennedy might harm Trump, arguing voters within the Keystone State could also be drawn extra to a candidate who’s neither Trump nor Biden.
As CNN beforehand reported, there are some in Trump’s orbit who’re involved about Kennedy qualifying for the presidential debates and imagine that having earlier debates would make it simpler to maintain Kennedy off the stage earlier than he might collect additional momentum within the polls.
“It’s not that he’s a risk. A number of it is determined by the state, and it’s nonetheless not clear who he’s taking extra from,” an individual near Trump stated. “If we will make individuals on the fitting, who is perhaps open minded to him, hate him very simply as a result of he’s so liberal. Why not weigh him down as a lot as potential with conservative or conservative leaning voters?”
CNN has reached out to Kennedy’s marketing campaign for remark.
Trump’s workforce created a playbook months ago to go on offense towards Kennedy and outline him as a “liberal parading in conservative’s clothes,” as one senior Trump adviser described him to CNN, pointing to a collection of his insurance policies on local weather change and abortion to color him as a part of the progressive wing of the Democratic occasion.
However within the months since, the messaging has various. Whereas Trump’s workforce and Republican Nationwide Committee officers caught to the script and painted Kennedy as a far-left Democrat who doesn’t embody conservative values, the previous president himself typically had a distinct take.
At a marketing campaign cease at a Harlem bodega throughout Trump’s prison trial final month, the previous president ignored questions on whether or not he would take into account Kennedy as a possible operating mate, after Kennedy prompt emissaries of Trump’s had reached out concerning the prospect — one thing Trump’s marketing campaign adamantly denied. Trump as a substitute supplied gentle reward of Kennedy.
Days later, he referred to as Kennedy “a pleasant man” throughout an interview with Actual America’s Voice, including he wasn’t certain whether or not Kennedy harm him or Biden extra.
“Properly, I feel he’s a pleasant man. I’ve identified him. He’s extraordinarily liberal. He’s extra liberal than anyone,” Trump informed the radio host. “They are saying he hurts Biden, I feel, I’m undecided that that’s true. However he may harm Biden somewhat bit extra, you don’t know.”
Flash ahead to Could, and Trump has adopted a extra aggressive stance towards his unbiased rival. He has repeatedly attacked Kennedy on Fact Social, together with labeling him as “a Radical Left Lunatic” and calling him “the dumbest member of the Kennedy Clan,” in addition to needling Kennedy’s positions on vaccines and environmental coverage, amongst others.
Requested about Trump ratcheting up his assaults, a Trump marketing campaign adviser informed CNN: “We’ve seen an uptick within the quantity of protection he’s getting. And you recognize, we simply need to reiterate our message. We wish Trump to do what he does, what he does with everybody else. He separates the particular person from the politician.”
CNN’s Aaron Pellish contributed to this story.