One of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign staffers has been fired after a video circulated of her saying her “No. 1 priority” is for President Biden to lose the election.
Campaign manager Amaryllis Fox Kennedy said on X that Rita Palma’s contract was terminated “immediately upon seeing the longer video in which she gave an inaccurate job title and described a conversation that did not happen.”
In the video, Ms. Palma said she was the New York State director for the campaign. Ms. Kennedy, who is Mr. Kennedy’s daughter-in-law, said she was hired only a couple weeks ago as a ballot access consultant and had nothing to do with electoral strategy “nationally or in New York.”
The video of Ms. Palma showed her giving a presentation to Republican voters trying to sway them to help get Mr. Kennedy on the presidential ballot in New York. She talked about how she campaigned for former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, but he “lost” her because of his stance on vaccines.
“Whether you support Bobby or Trump, we all oppose Biden. And my thoughts are that, you know, that’s the No. 1 priority in the country,” she said.
During her presentation, she talked about how if more people start to support Mr. Kennedy, then it increases the likelihood that no candidate in the 2024 election would receive the majority of the Electoral College votes, which is 270. If that happens, Congress would determine who becomes president.
She said that Democrats are already nervous about the independent candidate’s influence and how he has taken support from Mr. Biden, but Republicans need to step up, too.
“Bobby’s moving the blues on his own. If the Republicans accepted the fact that New York, Maryland, Illinois, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, most of the Northeast is going to go blue, why wouldn’t we put our vote to Bobby and at least get rid of Biden and get those 28 electoral votes in New York … give those 28 electoral votes to Bobby rather than to Biden, thereby reducing Biden’s 270,” she said in the video.
“Who are they going to pick? If it’s a Republican Congress, they’ll pick Trump. So we’re rid of Biden either way,” she said.
Ms. Kennedy released a statement Monday saying it wasn’t taken at a campaign event.
“Palma was speaking as a private citizen and her statements in no way reflect campaign strategy, the sole aim of which is to win the White House with votes from former Trump and Biden supporters alike,” she wrote on X.
Ms. Palma confirmed that she no longer worked for the campaign to NBC News and said that her time with the campaign “has been one of the best political adventures of my life filled with some of the finest people I’ve encountered, and I have encountered many.”
“I hold no ill will and look forward to the next seven months of watching Bobby shine,” she said.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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