RFK Jr. May Have Come up With a Scheme Too Wild Even for Trump

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke with Donald Trump earlier this month about getting a job in the White House in exchange for endorsing him as president.

The Washington Post reported Monday that in the hours after Trump’s attempted assassination last week, Kennedy received a message from the former president’s team asking to talk. At the time, Kennedy had been giving interviews about the attack.

Later that night, the two men spoke on the phone, and weighed the price of Kennedy’s support: a job in Trump’s administration. But apparently Kennedy’s job interview quickly fell apart.

Some on Trump’s team were reportedly concerned about offering the independent candidate an official role in return for his endorsement, according to sources who spoke with the Post on the condition of anonymity. So nothing materialized for either candidate.

A segment of a phone call between Kennedy and Trump was previously leaked on social media, in which the former president could be heard claiming that vaccines cause autism. Although Kennedy insisted before Congress last summer that he had “never been anti-vaxx,” he previously claimed that there was “no vaccine that was safe and effective,” and said he believed vaccines cause autism.

“I would love you to do something,” Trump said during that call. “And I think it would be so good for you. And so big for you. And we’re going to win. We’re going to win. We’re way ahead of the guy.” It was previously unclear what exactly Trump was referring to, but now it seems likely they were talking about a potential gig for the conspiracy-touting independent.

Kennedy apologized for the leak, and on Monday, he began praising Trump. “I have a lot of respect for President Trump for reaching out to me. Nobody from the DNC, high or low, has ever reached out to me in 18 months. Instead they have allocated millions to try to disrupt my campaign,” he said in an interview with the Post.

He added that he would continue his campaign.

A Trump spokesperson tried to downplay the significance of the meeting between the two. “President Trump met with RFK and they had a conversation about the issues just as he does regularly with important figures in business and politics because they all recognize he will be the next president of the United States,” said Danielle Alvarez.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris Monday morning and ripped Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance in the process.

Speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Beshear touted Harris’s previous record as a prosecutor, saying that she is “kind and has empathy, which can make her a great president.

“The contrast between her and those running on the other side couldn’t be clearer,” Beshear said, pointing out that Harris prosecuted rapists and abusers, while Vance’s words about rape were egregious.

“Vance calls pregnancy arising from rape ‘inconvenient.’ No, it’s just plain wrong,” Beshear said. “He suggests that women should stay in abusive relationships. Listen, a domestic abuser isn’t a man, he’s a monster.”

Beshear’s endorsement carries a lot of weight, as he’s a twice-elected Democratic governor presiding over a red Southern state in Kentucky. He also has been discussed as a possible vice presidential running mate for Harris, even before Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential election Sunday, and in Monday’s interview, he hinted that he would be interested in the role.

“The only way I would consider something other than this current job is if I believe I could further help my people and to help this country,” Beshear said. When pressed further, he added, “I think if somebody calls you on that, what you do is you at least listen.”

Beshear is one of the most popular governors in America. An October poll found that he has the highest net approval rating of any Democratic governor in a red state. As Harris and her campaign decide who would be the ideal running mate for the Democratic ticket, Beshear’s success in Kentucky can only help his prospects.

On Monday, Mike Pence praised Biden’s decision to end his presidential bid and called for national unity. Despite the normalcy of Pence’s rhetoric, MAGA posters immediately began blasting the former vice president for his supposed traitorousness.

“President Joe Biden made the right decision for our country and I thank him for putting the interests of our Nation ahead of his own,” Pence wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “After the assassination attempt on President Trump and President Biden’s decision to end his campaign, now is a time for leaders in both parties to project calm and send a message of strength and resolve to America’s friends and enemies alike that, whatever the state of our politics, the American people are strong and our American military stands ready to defend our freedom and our vital national interests anywhere in the world.”

The statement was a tame call for national unity (albeit with some jingoism peppered in). Pence biographer Tom LoBianco called it “remarkably normal given the tone of things.”

But Pence has been persona non grata in Trump world since his refusal to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and his post was flooded with replies deeming his banal call for civility further proof of his turncoat status.

The conservative interest group the Association of Mature American Citizens posted, “Praising Biden, pathetic.” Conservative commentator Joey Mannarino said, “This is why we consider you a traitor, Mike. Fuck off.” Various other MAGA accounts left comments like, “Judas Pence has spoken,” “You knew what was at risk by certifying a stolen election yet you did it anyway,” “We are only in this mess because of you, so shut the fuck up,” and so on.

The MAGA outrage over Pence’s quite ordinary statement reveals his own party’s limited appetite for the unity he espouses.

Republicans may be starting to second-guess their party’s pick for vice president.

Much of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, including the decision to tap Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, was structured around attacks on President Joe Biden. But then Biden announced Sunday that he was withdrawing from the presidential race altogether.

Trump campaign officials acknowledged that Trump selected the inexperienced Vance, charged with all his techno-authoritarian ideas, to boost support among their own base, not extend a hand to swing voters, according to The Atlantic. Vance was a symbol of the Trump team’s assuredness that they would win in 2024. Come Sunday, that assuredness appears to be shrinking.

“Most striking thing I heard from Trump allies yesterday was the second-guessing of JD Vance—a selection, they acknowledged, that was [born] of cockiness, meant to run up margins with the base in a blowout rather than persuade swing voters in a nail-biter,” Atlantic staff writer Tim Alberta, who had written the piece about the panicking Trump campaign, posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Trump decried Biden’s decision to drop out in a post on Truth Social, writing that his team would have to “start all over again” and asking to be reimbursed for the cost. At the same time, Vance has set straight to work, calling for Biden to resign from the presidency.

Meanwhile, the Democrats possess a new potential nominee in the form of Vice President Kamala Harris. And as a result, the party had one of the best fundraising days ever.

The MAGA right has a new conspiracy theory about Joe Biden following his announcement to drop out of the presidential race: He is either dead or incapacitated and needs to show “proof of life.”

Many conservative figures are posting that Biden hasn’t made any public appearances in the last few days, especially since he posted his letter to withdraw Sunday. Representative Lauren Boebert jumped on the conspiracy, insinuating that Biden didn’t make the decision himself but that it was made for him due to his diminished mental state.

Boebert wasn’t the only member of Congress claiming that Biden’s absence was suspicious.

Other right-wing figures saw something nefarious in Biden’s signature, saying that it was conspicuously different from how the president usually signs documents.

Right-wing tech mogul David Sacks made a reference to the film Weekend at Bernie’s, where a dead man is propped up and passed off as alive, perfectly summing up what the right thinks about Biden right now.

In reality, Biden has been isolating in his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after being diagnosed with Covid-19 last week. While the decision to make his announcement withdrawing from the race via social media is unusual, perhaps he hasn’t wanted to make any formal announcements or press conferences from a beach house while sick. In his announcement Sunday, he said he would address the nation later this week. Regardless, conservatives aren’t posting out of any concern for the president: They’re going nuts still trying to process Biden’s decision.