Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he would be “honored” if independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were to drop out of the race and endorse the GOP ticket.
Mr. Trump, speaking on “Fox and Friends,” was responding to rumors that Mr. Kennedy is reconsidering his bid and could back Mr. Trump during an address on Friday.
“I’ve known him for a long time. As you know, he’s a little different kind of a guy. Very smart guy, he’s a very good person. If he endorsed me, I would be honored by it. He really has his heart in the right place,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Kennedy is known for his decades of championing progressive causes related to the environment and corporate abuses. More recently, he is better known for his work in questioning the approval process of some vaccines, a stance that attracted conservatives upset with COVID-era mandates.
His mix of stances made it hard for pundits to agree on whether he would take more votes away from Mr. Trump or the Democratic nominee.
Mr. Kennedy’s candidacy failed to gain traction, and its most notable headlines came from an old story about him dumping a black bear’s carcass in Central Park.
Mr. Trump said Mr. Kennedy, the son of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, was treated poorly by Democrats despite his background in the party.
Mr. Trump compared efforts to run Mr. Kennedy out of the Democratic primary to the forces that nudged President Biden out of the race to install Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.
“What they did to him was what they did to Biden,” Mr. Trump said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.