Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has reportedly denied that he sought a position in the potential cabinet of Vice President Kamala Harris if she wins the 2024 election.
According to a report published this week in The Washington Post, Kennedy wanted to discuss the possibility of getting a seat as a Cabinet secretary if he decided to back her campaign, citing Harris campaign officials.
Harris, who recently selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, is expected to become the Democratic party’s official candidate at the Democratic National Convention next week.
“I have no plans to endorse Kamala Harris for President,” said Kennedy in a Thursday X post. “I do have a plan to defeat her.”
He said that “VP Harris’s Democratic Party would be unrecognizable to my father and uncle and I cannot reconcile it with my values,” referring to the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy, Jr. He added that he thinks it is the “party of censorship, lockdowns, and medical coercion,” and took a jab at Walz’s well known comment that Republicans are “weird,” calling it a “middleschool” tactic.
In another X post, Kennedy said he though Harris’ economic plan “actually has some good ideas,” to help first-time homebuyers and offer a tax credit for parents of newborns. However, he also said her plan to limit corporate price gouging is “absurd,” and that he thinks the real reason for inflation is “the printing of trillions of dollars that go toward military spending and corporate giveaways,” and claimed that Harris appeared to not understand “basic economics.”
Fox News also reported that Kennedy refuted The Washington Post report during a “TikTok Town Hall” event.
“That’s fake news,” he said, according to the outlet. “I didn't ask Kamala Harris for a Cabinet position but I’ve reached out to all the candidates. I’ve met with some.”
Kennedy said he hasn’t met with Harris and that he believes “it would be tough” to work with her administration unless they committed to changes. In the earlier days of campaigning for the 2024 election, Kennedy – a member of the famously Democratic Kennedy family – declared he was running as a challenger to President Joe Biden. Then he announced that he would run instead as an independent and later declared Nicole Shanahan as his running mate. This summer, Biden stepped down as the Democratic candidate.
Experts said that Kennedy might take votes from either party as an independent in the 2024 race. Though was previously a Democrat, he has been known for a controversial anti-vaccine stance more often touted by Republicans. He’s also made headlines for claiming worms ate part of his brain and making comments that were criticized for being anti-Semitic, to name just a few.
Earlier this week, a judge ruled that Kennedy was disqualified from appearing on New York’s general election ballot because he falsely claimed a New York residence on his nominating petitions, CBS News reported. In Wednesday press release, the Kennedy campaign said it filed an appeal to the ruling. According to the campaign, Kennedy has secured ballot access in 22 states, submitted signatures in 18 states and has collected enough signatures for ballot access in an additional six states.
As of Friday, FiveThirtyEight polling data showed that Kennedy was polling at 5.1%. Harris was in the lead at 46.3% and former President Donald Trump, the GOP candidate, was at 43.5%.