(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Republican blowback against RFK Jr.’s independent presidential bid reveals party that fears him most [1] ['Daily Kos Staff'] Date: 2023-10-11 In case anyone wondered whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr's independent candidacy for president would be a bigger threat to Republicans or Democrats, they can stop. Republicans are freaking out after Kennedy's announcement Monday that he would make an independent bid for the White House. “We have to attack him,” one Republican operative anonymously told The Washington Post of the party's deliberations. “He would hurt the eventual nominee.” Indeed, Republicans came at Kennedy from all directions. “Make no mistake — a Democrat in Independent’s clothing is still a Democrat,” Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel warned in a statement after Kennedy's announcement. "RFK Jr. cannot hide from his record of endorsing Hillary, supporting the Green New Deal, fighting against the Keystone Pipeline, and praising [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's] tax hikes — he is your typical elitist liberal and voters won’t be fooled." A Trump campaign spokesperson got in on the action too. “Voters should not be deceived by anyone who pretends to have conservative values,” Steven Cheung said in a statement, dismissing Kennedy's candidacy as a "vanity project" designed to "cash in" on the family name. Given the ferocity of the Republican blowback, internal GOP polling clearly indicates Kennedy poses a bigger threat on the right. After all, he is perhaps most well known among Democrats now for spreading coronavirus vaccine conspiracies. A Quinnipiac University poll released last month found Republicans viewed Kennedy far more favorably than Democrats. Republicans: 48% favorable, 18% unfavorable, +30 Democrats: 14% favorable, 57% unfavorable, -43 Independents: 36% favorable, 37% unfavorable, -1 If there's a cautionary note in the data for Democrats, it's that nearly a third of voters overall and 28% of Democrats said they hadn't heard enough about Kennedy to have an opinion about him. In an election cycle that will surely be decided on the margins, that amount of uncertainty gives Republicans and bad actors such as Russia, for instance, some room to maneuver and stoke chaos. The best way to combat a candidacy like Kennedy's is to be crystal clear with voters about the stakes of the upcoming election—democracy versus fascism—and the fact that a vote for Kennedy is a vote for likely Republican nominee Donald Trump. Certainly, Kennedy's closest relatives weren't leaving anything to chance. Kennedy's siblings—Rory Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Hon. Joseph P. Kennedy II, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend—issued an immediate statement denouncing their brother's candidacy as "perilous for our country." [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/11/2198675/-Republican-blowback-against-RFK-Jr-s-independent-presidential-bid-reveals-party-that-fears-him-most?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_6&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/