Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is criticizing the Democratic Party for mounting legal challenges against him and former President Donald Trump ahead of the election.
“When I was a kid, the Democratic Party was at the lead of fighting for voting rights for every American. Now, the Democratic Party is doing everything it can to disenfranchise people and make sure that people can’t vote for who they want to,” Mr. Kennedy said on Fox News.
“Using litigation against me and — I’m not a fan of President Trump’s — but I want to beat him in a fair fight. I don’t want to win because of some spurious legal action that takes him out and removes him from the ballot and deprives Americans [of] the right to vote for somebody they want to vote for,” he said Thursday.
The Democratic National Committee filed a complaint last month with the Federal Election Commission, accusing Mr. Kennedy of a “ballot access scheme.”
The committee alleges that the super PAC American Values 2024 has been working to collect signatures to ensure Mr. Kennedy is on the November ballot in key states, but will have to “integrate their expenses” with Mr. Kennedy’s campaign in a way that violates federal election rules.
They’ve also complained about American Values receiving a $15 million donation from Timothy Mellon, a major donor of Mr. Trump. The DNC says those donations from one of Mr. Trump’s top supporters is a way to siphon support from President Biden’s reelection campaign.
Mr. Kennedy referred to the effort made by several states to kick Mr. Trump off the ballot. The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that states have no authority to remove the former president from the 2024 presidential ballot.
Mr. Trump also faces four criminal indictments in four jurisdictions — New York, Washington, Georgia and Florida.
Mr. Kennedy compared the U.S. to the Soviet Union, saying the country is heading in the path of fake elections.
“In Soviet Union, the political party would choose the candidates and you have these kind of faux elections,” he said. “And that is now what we are looking at [in] this country where the political party has ordained its candidate and is doing everything it can to make sure that nobody else can get on the ballot.”
Mr. Kennedy is only officially on the ballot in Utah, but the campaign has said it has collected enough signatures to make onto the ballot is Nevada, Hawaii and New Hampshire. American Values has said it has collected enough signatures for him to be on the ballot in Michigan, South Carolina, Arizona and Georgia.
“Right now, I’m doing better with young Americans than either President Trump or President Biden,” he said. “I’m winning among young Americans under the age of 35 nationally. I’m beating both President Trump and President Biden in the battleground states among Americans.”
Polls have shown that a lot of his supporters do come from the younger generations, and those who identify as independent. But, polls also show him at least 20 points behind Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump.
Democrats worry that Mr. Kennedy could grab enough voters from Mr. Biden that it would cause Mr. Trump to win the election.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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