Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/15/claims-that-rfk-jr-has-rejected-an-offer-to-be-trumps-vp.html
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He should offer the veep spot to Trump next.
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According to reports, both Democrats and Republicans are warning that Kennedy could tip the 2024 election to either Biden or Trump, but it’s Democrats who are expressing more concern.
Either way, it’s frightening that this conspiracist lunatic riding on his dad’s good name could determine our future as a country.
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Lock them in a small sealed room, and let them both use up all the oxygen.
Bad enough that TFG gets so much media mention, at least there’s all his legal cases, but why do they give space to RFKjr?
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RFK certainly will get some people on all sides simply due to the name. It won’t be many, but of course any are a concern.
Any democrat who’s turned on the news in the past 6 months won’t vote for RFK - he’s not liberal on anything and comes off as only slightly more sane than Trump, and a few hundred legal judgements less.
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Did Trump actually offer the VP spot to Kennedy?
That seems stupid. If RFK will draw more votes from Biden than Trump – which seems likely – then making him VP instead of letting him run as an independent would negate Trump’s advantage.
It’s been suggested that the people who are backing RFK are actually backing him for precisely this reason – that by supporting a third-party candidate, they intend to hurt Biden and give Trump the presidency. His largest backer is Timothy Mellon, who gave RFK $15 million and Trump $10 million, so it’s pretty clear what he hopes to achieve, and what he believes the RFK effect is likely to be.
If the Trump campaign fears that RFK will steal more voters from Trump than Biden, then it would make sense to try to persuade him to stand down – but I’d be interested to know what makes them think that would happen.
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It’s a good thing Trump has never ever done anything stupid then. (/s if it’s not obvious)
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Trump has also “offered” through his “University” to teach people how to be a real estate tycoon just like him.
And he has promised to offer healthcare better than Obamacare for much less money. And he’s offered to make America great again. Trump has no qualms on the offer, but doesn’t care so much on the follow through. If someone believes what he’s offering, they’re an idiot.
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They could never agree on vaccines.
Trump so badly wants to take credit for the Covid vaccines, but his base would side with RFKjr.
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If this is true, does that mean that Trump is concerned about RFK taking votes away from him? 
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However, he may still be up for court jester.
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Even if true, there’s no way Trump is going to publicly admit to RFK turning him down.
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Serious question: Why would any Democrat voter vote for this schmuck instead of Biden? Like, what value would they see in it given his public utterances and the track record of third party candidates in America?
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“Kennedy”
Informed voter? No reason I can think of.
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“Emissaries” = MAGAs who aspire to some day meet Trump.
There actually is a nontrivial number of anti-vax Democrats.
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His anti-vax platform – ignorant as it is – appeals to a certain number of voters of all kinds. The whole anti-vax thing used to be more of a liberal hippie/hipster pose right up until the pandemic when taking rational precautions to protect your health suddenly became an index of your political affiliations and ‘conservatives’ rejected rationality en masse.
Some voters may vote for Kennedy because they’re dissatisfied with Biden (or Trump) and want to “send a message to the establishment”.
Some voters may believe that Kennedy is likely to follow broadly the same policies as Biden – given that he’s nominally a Democrat – and want to vote for someone younger than Biden.
I think the kindest thing you can say is that people who would vote for him for any of these reasons are “misguided,” but then they’re not alone or even in a minority in that respect these days.
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It’s also a good thing that RFK Jr has never lied about anything.
The point of the lie is unclear. He is burnishing his far-right credentials: as fascist as Trump, but more competent!
I’m soooo liberal [/s] that his emissaries asked me to be his VP
Obviously this is not compatible with the long-term goal of siphoning off Democratic voters… I can only suppose that he realised that the Republican constituency is more easily grifted, so he has to appeal more to them.
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I heard a pundit say (possibly quoting a source) that Trump likes the sound of a Trump-Kennedy ticket. Which totally checks out if marketing is your driving motivation.
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Meh, he could have the junior senator from Louisiana, John Neely Kennedy, or Fox News commentator Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, who goes by “Kennedy”. I bet either of them would be up for it.
New York’s JFK airport, frequently referred to as Kennedy, is reportedly not interested, however.
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