Democratic presidential challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lauded what he called the “rising populist movement among Democrats and Republicans” in a tweet Friday that highlighted his growing cross-party appeal.
The rising populist movement among Democrats and Republicans is creating a space where everyone can come together. The next president should represent all of America, and help us unite on common ground.#Kennedy24 pic.twitter.com/c2MRPIy9bl
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 7, 2023
In a video included in the tweet, Kennedy calls himself a “traditional Kennedy liberal,” and includes in that definition a suspicion of “war and the military industrial complex,” as well as corporate power in government.
“There is a growing coalition … of populist forces on the left and right that are convening now, and that are finding common ground. And I think that that really is probably the only thing that is going to rescue American democracy.
“There is a rebellion that is happening in our country now, a populist rebellion. And if we don’t capture that rebellion, making our country an exemplary nation again, somebody else is going to hijack that rebellion for much darker purposes.
Kennedy rejected the idea of not speaking to “American populists” on the right who had been referred to as “deplorable” — an allusion to Hillary Clinton’s infamous insult in 2016. “They’re Americans, they’re our brothers and sisters, and we need to listen to them, and their backs are against the wall because of policies that have come down from both Republican and Democratic parties.”
Kennedy is challenging incumbent President Joe Biden for his party’s nomination, a rare insurgency — but one that follows in the footsteps of his father, who challenged President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 on an anti-war platform.
Though he still trails Biden, Kennedy could win the early primary state of New Hampshire, which has long favored outsiders, and which Biden rebuffed by backing a plan to move South Carolina’s primary earlier.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
