In a historic speech on Friday, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pointed out some of the Democratic Party’s problems and the irony of the fact that while they tried to save democracy, they essentially dismantled it.
Kennedy, who ended his presidential bid in favor of former President Donald Trump, explained how he came to his current position in a historic speech in Arizona.
“Sixteen months ago, in April 2023, I launched my campaign for president of the United States,” Kennedy said. “I began this journey as a Democrat — the party of my father and uncles, the party to which I pledged allegiance long before I was of voting age.” He reflected on his career as a Democrat, saying that in the past, the party has been filled with “defenders of the Constitution for civil rights” and “opposed to authoritarianism and censorship, [and] “We oppose colonialism, imperialism and unjust wars.”
“We were the party of workers, the party of the working class. Democrats advocated for transparency in government. We were champions of the environment. Our party was a bulwark against big money interests and corporate power. We were, as the name suggests, the party of democracy,” he said, explaining that this is no longer the case.
So he formally left the Democratic Party in 2023, outraged at how it has become the party of censorship, Big Pharma, Big Tech, and the super-rich.
This is the same party that sought to “cover up the cognitive decline of a sitting president,” he said.
“I left my party to run as an independent. Mainstream American politics and journalism have mocked my decision,” he said in a slammed attack on the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
“And what’s most saddening to me and to the Democratic Party is that in the name of protecting democracy, the Democrats have tried to dismantle their own democracy because they’re not confident that their candidate can win a fair election at the ballot box,” he said.
“The Democratic National Committee has waged an ongoing legal battle against both President Trump and me,” he explained.
“Every time our volunteers turned in a mountain of signatures needed to appear on the ballot, the DNC dragged us to court, state by state, trying to erase our work and overturn the will of the voters who signed the petitions,” he said, slamming the DNC for installing party-aligned judges “to keep me and other candidates off the ballot and send President Trump to prison.”
“Then, when a predictable debate gaffe sparked a palace coup against President Biden, the same shadow Democratic National Committee operatives appointed a successor, also without an election,” he noted.
“They elected a candidate who was deeply unpopular with voters and who withdrew in 2020 without winning a single delegate,” he said of Vice President Kamala Harris, showing how Democrats have destroyed democracy.
“They would be surprised to know that a Democratic presidential candidate like Vice President Harris has gone 35 days without a single interview or unscripted conversation with voters,” he said, referring to his uncle and father.
“This is extremely undemocratic,” he said.
“How will people make choices if they don’t know who they’re going to choose? And how is this seen by the rest of the world?” he asked.
Members of the Kennedy family expressed disappointment in RFK Jr.’s decision, viewing it as a kind of “betrayal.”
RFK Jr.’s siblings called his support for Trump “a betrayal of the values our father and family hold most dear.” pic.twitter.com/XLq1jACPu8
— Republicans Against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 23, 2024
“We want an America full of hope, united by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic possibility and national pride,” they said in a joint statement.
“We believe in Ms. Harris and Mr. Waltz. Our brother Bobby’s decision today to support Mr. Trump is a betrayal of our father and the values our family holds most dear,” they said, adding that it is “a sad ending to a sad story.”
