RFK Jr. expected to drop out of race by end of week, plans to endorse Trump: Sources
(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to drop out of the presidential race by the end of this week, sources familiar with the decision tell ABC News.
Sources tell ABC News that Kennedy plans to endorse Donald Trump — but when asked directly by ABC News if he will be endorsing the former president, Kennedy said, “I will not confirm or deny that.”
“We are not talking about any of that,” he said.
Sources cautioned the decision is not yet finalized and could still change, with one source adding that Kennedy’s hope is, in part, to finalize things quickly in order to try to blunt momentum from the Democratic National Convention.
One possible scenario being discussed is for Kennedy to appear on stage with Trump at an event in Phoenix on Friday, though the sources cautioned that Kennedy’s thinking could always change and sources close to Trump say no plan for Friday is finalized.
Kennedy’s campaign manager, Amaryllis Fox, emailed senior staff on Wednesday morning thanking them for their hard work — but indicated a decision on the way forward had not been made, a source familiar with the email told ABC News.
“There are a couple potential paths forward, not only two, and I can bear witness to the care, examination that Bobby has invested in the consideration of each,” Fox wrote, according to the source.
A spokesperson for Kennedy posted on X that Kennedy will “address the nation” live on Friday to discuss his “path forward,” but offered no specifics.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kennedy told ABC News regarding the Democratic convention and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, “I think it was a coronation, it’s not democracy. Nobody voted. Who chose Kamala It wasn’t voters.”
He also complained about the way his campaign has been treated.
“She went in four weeks from being the worst liability for Democratic Party to the second coming of Christ without giving one interview, without showing up for a debate, without a single policy that anyone thinks isn’t ridiculous,” he said. “It’s not democracy.”
(WEST PALM BEACH , Fla.) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday blamed a polarized political environment and “rhetoric” from Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden for the second assassination attempt on his life over the weekend.
He said that things Harris and Biden said caused the suspected gunman Ryan Wesley Routh to act on Sunday.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump said of the gunman in an interview with Fox News Digital. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
The suspect’s motive remains unknown as the FBI continues to conduct an extensive investigation into Routh’s background, looking at whether Routh was frustrated with Trump’s position on Ukraine, sources tell ABC News.
Routh appeared in a federal courtroom in West Palm Beach Monday morning and faces two firearm-related charges.
While blaming Democrats for using “highly inflammatory language,” the former president himself also attacked his opponents, calling them enemies and threats.
“These are people that want to destroy our country,” Trump said. “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.”
The political nature of his comments is a departure from Trump’s immediate response following his assassination attempt earlier this summer in Butler, Pennsylvania.
After the shooting, Trump called for political unity, initially urging his allies not to point blame across the aisle.
“In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win,” Trump had written.
His tone later shifted, falsely suggesting during the ABC News presidential debate that he “probably took a bullet to the head” because of Harris. The FBI has not established a motive that explains why Thomas Matthew Crooks fired on Trump.
On Sunday, Secret Service agents fired at Routh, who was armed with an AK-47-style rifle near the Trump International golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Biden called for more Secret Service assistance.
“One thing I want to make clear, the [Secret] Service needs more help and I think the Congress should respond to their needs, if in fact they need more servicemen,” Biden said while departing the White House.
(CHICAGO) — Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger is in a unique position as a Republican: On Thursday, he is set to deliver a prime-time speech on the final day of the Democratic National Convention, speaking in support of Vice President Kamala Harris before she accepts her party’s nomination for president.
Kinzinger, who retired from the House in 2023, has been a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump over the years, and although he describes himself as a “proud conservative,” he endorsed then-candidate Joe Biden for reelection in June.
“Donald Trump poses a direct threat to every fundamental American value,” Kinzinger said in his Biden endorsement video, mentioning Trump’s role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The former Illinois congressman sat on the House’s Jan. 6 select committee that investigated the attack. He was also one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump on a charge of inciting the Jan. 6 attack.
“To every American of every political party, and those of none: I say now is not the time to watch quietly as Donald Trump threatens the future of America,” Kinzinger said in support of the Democratic ticket.
Since Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee, Kinzinger has supported the vice president, saying she stands for democracy.
Kinzinger’s speech will round out a slate of Republicans who have spoken at the DNC this week, including former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, Mayor John Giles of Mesa, Arizona, former Trump White House national security official Olivia Troye and former Trump White House press secretary Stephania Grisham.
In what’s expected to be a close contest between Harris and Trump in November, the Harris campaign is leaving no stone unturned, targeting Republicans and independents in their messaging and outreach.
GOP speakers at the DNC appear to be doing the same.
“The sometimes awkward alliance between the left, center, and sane right will prevail! We’re not going back,” Kinzinger posted to X on Wednesday.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris became the front-runner for the Democratic 2024 presidential nomination after President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing her.
Harris has expressed many of the same views as Biden on health care issues, including access to abortion and lowering prescription drug prices, both while campaigning against Biden for their party’s presidential nomination during the last general election and as Biden’s vice president.
However, on the issue of health care, Harris has veered to the left of Biden and called for a transition to a single-payer system, something Biden has not endorsed.
“We can look back to 2019 and get an idea of what she views, but she also now has four years of being part of an administration,” Dan Mallinson, an associate professor of public policy and administration at Penn State Harrisburg, told ABC News. “So, she’s going to have to think about, how does she differentiate herself, right? As ‘This is who I’m going to be as president’ but also, she can’t kind of undermine the work that’s been done over the past administration, so she’s still connected to that.”
Here’s where Kamala Harris stands on various health care issues:
Single-payer health care system
Harris has previously expressed support for a single-payer health care system, sometimes referred to as “Medicare for All.”
Although she initially indicated during a 2019 presidential campaign debate that she would support eliminating private health insurance, Harris walked back her support and instead unveiled her own health care plan. It called for expanding Medicare access to all Americans and setting up a 10-year transition period that would automatically enroll newborns and the uninsured, allowing doctors time to enter the system and help employers choose from federally designated programs.
The plan also preserves a role for private insurance companies, allowing Americans the option to obtain health insurance through the public Medicare plan or through a Medicare plan offered by a private insurer.
“My understanding is this is another area where she is a bit more progressive than the president in that [she] is supportive of the Affordable Care Act and the expansion that occurred, but is among those who argue that a next step then would be to provide that kind of Medicare for All idea, or a public option,” Mallinson said. “Whether that has broad enough political support, even among and within the Democratic Party, is less clear.”
Biden has previously suggested he would veto a “Medicare for All” bill, arguing that it would raise taxes for the middle class. Instead, he has focused on strengthening the Affordable Care Act that was signed into law in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama, when Biden was his vice president.
Reproductive rights
Similar to the president, Harris has been an outspoken advocate for abortion rights and has criticized the U.S. Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending the federally protected right to abortion.
Both Biden and Harris have said they consider it a priority to protect reproductive freedoms, with Harris declaring, “To truly protect reproductive freedoms, we must restore the protections of Roe.”
However, Harris has been more amplified in her support for reproductive rights, becoming the first vice president to visit a clinic run by Planned Parenthood and criticizing Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance for seemingly backing a national abortion ban and blocking protections for in-vitro fertilization.
Additionally, Harris said during an MSNBC town hall in May 2019 that, if elected president, she would require any state-passed law limiting reproductive freedoms to undergo approval from the Department of Justice before being enacted.
“Biden, having a strong Catholic background, had been much more moderate on the issue of reproductive rights, but [he] has become much more vocal after the overturning of Roe versus Wade,” Mallinson said. “But Kamala Harris, on the other hand, [had a] much stronger profile on reproductive rights and [was] a much stronger vocal advocate, and I think will be on the campaign as well.”
Lowering prescription drug costs
Biden and Harris have also been aligned on lowering health care costs. Under the Biden-Harris administration, the cost of insulin has been capped at $35 per month for many Americans, and the federal government has begun direct price negotiations on 10 widely used drugs paid for by Medicare Part D, with plans to add more drugs to the list in the future.
As a candidate in 2019, Harris also supported a plan authorizing the Department of Health and Human Services to set new price caps for all drugs sold in the U.S., based on prices charged in other developed countries for the same medications.
Additionally, if Congress declined to pass legislation to lower prescription drug costs, Harris proposed a potential executive action that would ask for a report on which pharmaceutical companies have drugs being sold at high prices. A warning would then be issued for those companies to lower their prices and, if they don’t, a lower-priced competitor would be placed on the market.
Mallinson said that if Harris does become president, she would likely attempt to expand both the effort to lower prescription drug costs and the negotiations to cover more drugs. However, Mallinson said he’s unsure if Harris would be able to exercise the executive actions detailed in her 2019 plan.
“You’ve seen both former President Trump, as well as President Biden, make a lot of promises about executive action, and then it’s actually difficult to follow through on that,” he said. “And also, what a lot of people don’t understand, is the president just can’t change anything through an executive order. They’re not they’re not kings and queens. Those orders only allow them to make changes that are already within their authority as the executive in a certain area.”