Newsmax Cheerleads For RFK Jr., Part 3
Newsmax offered surprisingly fair coverage of Robert Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign travails -- but it eagerly welcomed him to the fold when he dropped his campaign to support Donald Trump.
Like the rest of the ConWeb, Newsmax heavily championed Robert Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign when he was running as a Democrat in the hope he might serve as a spoiler for President Biden’s re-election campaign, only to lose interest when he decided to switch to running as an independent candidate, which would likely take votes away from Donald Trump. But compared with the other outlets, Newsmax continued to report fairly consistently on Kennedy from both sides (though one might suspect a particular day’s coverage depends on whether Newsmax feels he hurts Biden or Trump more). Here is some of Newsmax’s coverage of Kennedy since late last year that is supportive of the candidate:
Other articles highlighted some of Kennedy’s foibles:
RFK Jr. Campaign Disavows Email Calling Jan. 6 Defendants ‘Activists’
RFK Jr. Wants to Hear ‘Every Side’ on Jan. 6 Prisoners (wire article)
Newsmax also served up articles that sort of played it down the middle while admitting his appeal to Trump voters. A Dec. 25 wire article noted that Kennedy was drawing interest from voters who had previously voted for Trump and for Biden. A Jan. 31 article by Sandy Fitzgerald noted that Kennedy was drawing more donors of Trump than for Biden:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign, after announcing his independent run in early October, has brought in more than $7 million through December, with more money coming from donors who have given in the past to former President Donald Trump than to President Joe Biden.
According to a Politico analysis of filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission late Tuesday, $5 million came from itemized donations of more than $200, with about $224,000 of the donors who gave money to Trump’s 2020 campaign.In comparison, $105,000 came from donors to Biden’s 2020 campaign against Trump.
In comparison, $105,000 came from donors to Biden’s 2020 campaign against Trump.
The figures show a trend that was happening while Kennedy was still in the Democratic primary and suggest that he could gain interest from Trump supporters if he and Trump face Biden in November’s general election.
Newsmax also ran a couple of articles featuring Trump attacking Kennedy. Michael Katz detailed one rant in a March 27 article:
Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is great for the MAGA movement because he is more liberal than President Joe Biden, and that taking votes away from Biden in November’s election “would be a great service to America.”
Trump’s post on Truth Social came a day after Kennedy named tech attorney and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as his running mate.
“RFK Jr. is the most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far,” Trump wrote. “He’s a big fan of the Green New Scam, and other economy killing disasters. I guess this would mean he is going to be taking votes from Crooked Joe Biden, which would be a great service to America. His running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is even more ‘Liberal’ than him if that’s possible.”
Eric Mack pushed the same narrative in an April 27 article:
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is not only removing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from nascent chatter of being a potential running mate, he is calling him “a WASTED PROTEST VOTE” that is even more “Radical Left” than President Joe Biden and his “Green New Scammers.”
“RFK Jr. is a Democrat ‘Plant,’ a Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the History of the United States, get Re-Elected,” Trump wrote in the first of three continuous posts Friday night on Truth Social.
“A Vote for Junior’ would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE, that could swing either way, but would only swing against the Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him.”
Despite past praise of Kennedy for his independent positions and breaking from Democrats and Biden, Trump exposed the “Radical Left” positions his third-party opponent espouses.
In between, an April 18 wire article from the Associated Press noted that “President Joe Biden will accept endorsements from at least 15 members of the Kennedy political family during a campaign stop in Philadelphia on Thursday as he aims to undermine former President Donald Trump and marginalize the candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” Someone made a curious edit later in the article, however. An article that reads “the prominent Democratic family” in the original was changed to “Democrat family.” Changing “Democratic” to “Democrat” is something right-wingers like Newsmax do in an attempt to belittle the party’s supporters by deliberately getting the name wrong.
That pattern continued throughout the spring:
But Newsmax has also written up some of Kennedy’s missteps, such has mixed messaging on the Capitol riot:
That was followed by an article featuring former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a member of the House committee that looked into the riot, claiming that Kennedy’s flip-flops show he has been “hijacked by MAGA.”
Newsmax also captured snippets of Donald Trump’s love-hate relationship with Kennedy:
Newsmax also noted fretting that Kennedy’s campaign could hurt Trump:
Finally, Newsmax devoted a July 2 article by Sam Barron to Anthony Fauci torching Kennedy:
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the White House’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic recalled a meeting he had with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who is running an independent campaign for president, in a podcast interview Monday.
Fauci, who previously served as director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said he met with Kennedy during the Trump administration when Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer, lobbied to be named the head of a White House commission on vaccine safety.
“The first slide I remember he showed is that ‘It has been shown that vaccinations are responsible for the following diseases,’ and he gave every disease in the world,” Fauci said in an interview with David Axelrod, a CNN pundit. “For the next 40 minutes or so, he showed slide after slide after slide that day that make no sense at all.”
Fauci said after the meeting he tried to explain to Kennedy that what he said made no sense from a scientific standpoint. Kennedy later wrote a critical book of Fauci called “The Real Anthony Fauci,” where he accused him of funding rigged scientific research and sabotaging treatments for AIDS.
“I don’t know what’s going on in his head, but it’s not good,” Fauci said of Kennedy, claiming Kennedy’s book said he killed people with vaccines.
One possible answer to that might be the brain worm, which the apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy covered in a May 8 article.
The Trump flip
An Aug. 15 article by James Morley III previewed the final phase of Kennedy’s campaign:
In a long-winded rebuke of the modern Democratic Party, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he has “no plans to endorse” Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Kennedy had reached out via intermediaries to Harris’ campaign seeking a potential Cabinet post if Harris wins the presidency. Democratic National Committee spokesman Matt Corridoni told The Hill on Thursday, “No one has any intention of negotiating with a MAGA-funded fringe candidate who has sought out a job with Donald Trump in exchange for an endorsement.”
Kennedy fired back with a lengthy X post that began by attacking the modern Democratic Party as being “unrecognizable” to the one of his father, former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and uncle, former President John F. Kennedy.
Morley didn’t mention how it’s more likely that Kennedy is the one who has drifted from Democratic Party values. Meanwhile, an Aug. 20 article by Theodore Bunker showed the direction Kennedy would ultimately go:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might suspend his independent presidential campaign and endorse former President Donald Trump, Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, said in an interview Tuesday, CNBC reported.
Shanahan, an attorney and entrepreneur, said in an interview with the podcast “Impact Theory” that the campaign is considering whether to “join forces” with the Trump campaign or stay in the race and attempt to gain more than 5% of the popular vote in the general election, which may help to “establish ourselves” as a third party.
Another article that day by Mark Swanson, however, suggested the real agenda happening: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign entered August with just $3.9 million in the bank after spending more than it raised in July, Politico reported Tuesday. Further, Kennedy’s campaign owes $3.5 million, according to Politico.” And an Aug. 21 article by Solange Reyner showed the incentive being dangled before him: “Trump Would ‘Probably’ Give RFK Jr. Role If Endorsed.” Meanwhile, an Aug. 22 article by Reyner touted how “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary would likely dismantle the 13 agencies HHS oversees and rebuild them with like-minded people and stop the National Institutes of Health from studying infectious diseases and instead study chronic disease,” as if that was a good thing.
When Kennedy finally made that leap to Trump — which would also seem to contradict that he was ever a loyal Democrat — Newsmax first announced it with a wire article. After that, an article by Michael Katz touted a joint rally appearance (which aired on Newsmax, natch):
Donald Trump appeared at an Arizona rally with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday night, just hours after Kennedy ended his independent presidential bid and endorsed the Republican nominee.
“We’re welcoming the support from millions of disaffected Democrats, independents, moderates, old-fashioned liberals who still believe in things like little things like borders,” Trump said in a speech which aired live on Newsmax and simulcast on the Newsmax2 online streaming platform. “Gone forever is the old Democratic Party of FDR, JFK. And that’s right, even Bill Clinton.
“To all who supported Bobby’s campaign, I very simply ask you to join us in building this coalition. It’s a beautiful coalition in defense of liberty and safety, prosperity, and peace. It’s going to be an incredible coalition, and the relationship has been so good for so long. I have no doubt it’s going to work and work well, but we have to win. We have to take our country away from these people that are going to destroy our country.”
[…]
Kennedy, who was greeted by thunderous applause, said he and Trump have talked not on the things that divided them but on the things that binded them, such as having safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic.
Kennedy’s speechifying got its own article by Swanson:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. crucified the Democratic Party during a speech on Friday to announce that he’s ending his independent presidential campaign and endorsing Republican nominee Donald Trump.
In the speech in Phoenix, Arizona, carried by Newsmax, Kennedy accused Democrats of “dismantling” Democracy “in the name of saving Democracy.”
[…]
“When it abandoned democracy by canceling the primary to conceal the cognitive decline of the sitting president, I left the party to run as an independent. In the name of saving democracy, the Democratic Party set itself to dismantling it,” Kennedy asserted.
Neither Katz nor Swanson mentioned that a few weeks earlier, his employer published an articlenoting that Kennedy had been caught calling Trump a terrible human being and a sociopath. An article by Morley, however, admitted that “The family of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken to social media to publicly shame their brother following his endorsement of former President Donald Trump.”
Still, Newsmax was pretty much on board, as suggested by an article that day by Kate McCanus claiming that “CNN dropped its live coverage Friday night of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as he was taking the Democratic National Committee to task for the way it went about selecting Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee.” McManus offered no proof the two were related.
This was followed by an Aug. 25 article by Sandy Fitzgerald documenting Kennedy’s whining:
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.
Yes, that repeat appeared in the original. Another article that day by Katz noted:
Donald Trump’s campaign on Friday welcomed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to drop his independent presidential bid and endorse Trump as good news for the Republican nominee.
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign sought to reach out to disaffected voters who might have been part of Kennedy’s coalition.
A few articles in the following days focused on related side issues:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., West Approved for Ballot in Wisconsin
RFK Jr. Appeals Ruling That Knocked Him off New York’s Ballot
An Aug. 30 column by Larry Bell effectively showed that Trump and Kennedy aren’t that far apart on major issues, further discrediting any claim Kennedy might still be making to be a pure Democrat.