CNN anchor Erin Burnett had a message for naysayers who are shrugging off former President Trump‘s “huge” endorsement from former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy rocked the political landscape on Friday by announcing he was suspending his campaign and backing the Republican nominee despite having been a lifelong Democrat.
“The latest swing state polls show Kennedy with five or six percent of the vote,” Burnett told viewers Friday evening.
“And so, when you think about it overall, and they say ‘Well, that’s not a big deal.’ Actually, if that is the case in swing states, it is huge. It is everything. It is more than the margin between Harris and Trump in some of those same states,” she added.
CNN’s Erin Burnett told viewers Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of former President Trump is “huge” in the swing states. (Screenshot/CNN)
Burnett cited a recent New York Times/Siena College poll showing Kennedy with 6% support in Arizona and Nevada and 5% in Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Kennedy joined Trump at a rally in Glendale, Arizona, where the former candidate received a hero’s welcome.
TRUMP THANKS RFK JR FOR ENDORSEMENT AFTER THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATE SUSPENDS HIS CAMPAIGN: ‘THAT’S BIG’
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a rally in Glendale, Arizona, U.S., August 23, 2024. (REUTERS/Go Nakamura)
Kennedy, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, both of whom were assassinated, initially launched his presidential bid as a Democrat in a primary challenge to President Biden. But later he sought an independent run after being pushed out by the party.
His endorsement of Trump threw a wrench in the news cycle that was previously dominated by Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepting the Democratic nomination at the DNC convention in Chicago just one month after Biden withdrew from the race.
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Kennedy’s announcement threw a wrench in what was supposed to be a glowing post-DNC convention news cycle for Vice President Kamala Harris. (REUTERS/Kevin Wurm)
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During his withdrawal speech, Kennedy lit into liberal “media organs” of the Democratic Party, accusing them of essentially colluding with the party to stifle him and create a veneer of popularity for Harris.
“Over the course of more than a year … the DNC-aligned mainstream media networks maintained a near-perfect embargo on interviews with me,” he said. “During his 10-month presidential campaign in 1992, Ross Perot gave 34 interviews on mainstream networks. In contrast, during the 16 months since I declared, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN combined gave only two live interviews [with] me. Those networks instead ran a continuous deluge of hit pieces with inaccurate, often vile pejoratives and defamatory smears. Some of those same networks colluded with the DNC to keep me off the debate stage.”