In a rare piece of actually original reporting – or at least more “original” than assigning a writer to watch The View or listen to a Joe Rogan podcast – Mediaite on Friday broke that antisemitic anti-vax freak Robert F Kennedy Jr is going to drop out of the Dem presidential primary and mount a third party run, news that was received well, not so well, and then like “Oh fuck” by the MAGA internet:
“If this is true RFK Jr just fired a shot across the bow of Biden’s sinking ship” – The current top comment on The Right Scoop’s story. That’s exactly the kind of enthusiasm we like.
“If he can get on the ballot as an independent, it will eliminate any chance the democrats may have had at winning. He should watch his back” – Top comment on Fox News’s article. Same as above.
“Awesome news, he will suck up demoRat votes” – Top comment at the Daily Caller. Still excited.
“Kennedy knows how corrupt the Democrats are” – Top comment at Breitbart and about the most generic take possible, like they couldn’t bring themselves to contemplate the actual real-world consequences of the anti-vax cult’s champion being on the ballot in crucial swing states next year.
“I hope he splits the Democrat vote in half. MAGA vote MAGA! Trump 47!” – Top comment on the Gateway Pundit’s article. Key word is “hope” followed by the call for Trump fans to vote for him again, like “Please don’t fuck around on this. The COVID vax thing isn’t more important than MAGA.”
“Never thought I’d vote independent, and I don’t support Mr Kennedy’s positions. However if RFK votes destroy Democrat dreams, I may be all in” – Top comment on PJ Media’s article. Why this was the top comment we can’t tell. It appears this guy’s genuinely “all in” on voting for the hoarse-voiced black sheep from Hyannis Port and at least eight other readers agreed with him.
“Ross Perot is smiling” – Top comment at Real Clear Politics and an apparent acknowledgement of the reality of what a conservative-friendly third candidate does to the GOP nominee.
Dems aren’t voting for RFK after the vaccine became their holy sacrament
That’s why he’s been excommunicated from the mainstream party
He doesnt take many votes from Biden
But there’s a ton of his voters in swing states
States that Trump needs to win
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 29, 2023
“Polling shows that RFK, Jr’s appeal come more from the right than the left and this announcement isn’t the good news people think it is” – Top comment at PowerLine Blog. Getting warmer.
“All the Republicans who are saying they’d vote for him are just giving Biden a second term. And no, I don’t care whether the Republican nominee is Trump or DeSantis, the end result is the same. The ‘I’ll never vote for _____’ Republicans are going to give Biden a second shot at the White House. I hope you morons are proud of yourselves” – Top comment on Twitchy’s article. Sounds pretty upset.
I was reporting on the vaccine freedom movement years ago.
All these moms love RFK JR.
It’s our friend group. They held dinners for him and Del Bigtree
They are otherwise Trump voters, they going RFK JR.
This isn’t up for debate.
I KNOW.
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) September 29, 2023
“I don’t think we can win a national election anymore anyway. Before I even got excited about one candidate or the other, the neverTrumpers seen lock step in their attitude about voting a write in or vote third party if Trump was the top of the ticket. We’re our own worst enemy” – Top comment on the RedState.com op-ed “RFK Jr’s Independent Run Is Why Republicans Lose.” We seriously considered just taking that piece alone as a singular reaction rather than doing a lengthy rundown like this, because this guy “Bonchie” (yeah, that’s the byline) is freaking the fuck out, badly.
“We’ll see what happens, but RFK Jr getting in the race is going to suck up precious resources from a Republican electorate that is already seeing most of its money spent on legal bills. You can’t play nice with him because that would only encourage further vote splitting on the right while rallying Democrat opposition. But to go on the offensive requires time and money, and those things are in short supply. This was an own goal by the right Perhaps some lessons will be learned” he writes.
If you run independent and cost Trump the Presidency, you deserve to be deported.
— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) September 29, 2023
“OMG it is hilarious. Talk about a backfire! A Republican mega donor pushes RFK Jr trying to weaken Biden, and now it is obvious that RFK Jr, will pull almost all the votes he gets from Trump” – Top comment on the Mediaite article breaking the story. Obviously not from “MAGA Land,” but the eight downvotes tells you all you need to know about how well the fanboys received the reality check.
I explain here why RFK running could hurt Trump.
Listen:https://t.co/gojPbhfW4x
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 29, 2023
“RFK Jr is gaining real steam. The media is struggling to censor him” – Charlie Kirk in a tweet on June 18th. The podcast episode above was actually from earlier this week, when Kirk was adamant that Bobby Jr stay in the Dem primary instead of running third party – even calling a recent Newsweek poll an “op” meant to push RFK Jr into the general – and Kirk bumped it up on the news.
Well they made this piss-soaked bed, they can sleep in it. The question at one point might have been how much damage Kennedy could do to Biden in a primary (or the general) by acting normal and otherwise coasting on name recognition and the answer turned out to be “none” because he started saying shit like “Wifi radiation opens up your blood-brain barrier so all these toxins that are in your body can now go into your brain.” By then it was already too late for him to back down from the race altogether and the only way to keep it going was to drop out and go spoiler. In the last Quinnipiac poll RFK Jr was at net 26 percent favorability among Republicans and negative net 26 among Democrats. NYT/Siena found him at minus 31 with Dems, plus 16 with GOP voters.
So when we wrote “RFK Jr is probably going to burn out before 2024” we had considered the possibility of a third party run but figured he would stick with the primary simply due to the core identity of the Kennedy name with Democrats. Now the die is cast and the level of apprehension among the MAGA assholes that actually spent time thinking about this speaks to the reality that his run is absolutely certain to end up costing Trump more than Biden simply due to anti-vaxxers.
If RFK Jr. truly runs as an independent, it may hurt Trump more than it hurts Biden
He may have a D next to his name, but he is viewed more favorably by Republicans than Democrats.
It may not be by enough to make a meaningful difference, but this is not a good thing. pic.twitter.com/e2Akc3CTjn
— Red Eagle Politics (@RedEaglePatriot) September 29, 2023
How much more? We would estimate that RFK Jr on the ballot means, at the very least, a wash for both that Cornel West piece of shit and whoever that “No Labels” scam operation eventually puts up. Meaning it might as well be just Trump vs Biden because their respective spoilers would negate each other – if they’re all definitely running. Kennedy’s probably more likely to actually be on the ballot where it counts than West and the No Labels asshole would. Things get more complicated and not in a good way for MAGA if Joe Rogan and/or Elon Musk end up endorsing Kennedy.
That would probably prove catastrophic for Trump. Even without Rogan or Musk’s approval all their anti-vax edgelord fanboys whom Donald is counting on to reluctantly show up for him now have an out to show their displeasure with both him and Biden for pushing the “clot shot” on America.
And the MAGA propaganda machine did this entirely to themselves.