Covidiots

PBS NewsHour reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will hold a news briefing on Friday, a day after he withdrew from the ballot in Arizona, as Donald Trump is set to appear only a few miles away in the Phoenix area. Fueling speculation that Kennedy could drop his independent presidential bid and endorse the Republican nominee. Trump, campaigning Thursday in southern …

The Arizona Republic reports: Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. late Thursday filed to withdraw his name from Arizona’s Nov. 5 ballot, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office confirmed to The Arizona Republic. Kennedy filed to withdraw about 5:30 p.m., according to JP Martin, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. Speculation has swirled about Kennedy considering ending …

ABC News reports: 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 …

“There’s two options that we’re looking at. One is staying in, forming that new party; but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump. We draw, somehow, more votes from Trump. Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump; and we walk away from that and we …

Mother Jones reports: Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign hosted an online panel Wednesday on the future of AI moderated, for some reason, by Ian Carroll, a self-styled journalist with a history of antisemitic statements. In the course of the conversation, Kennedy admitted that he “gets manipulated by AI all the time.” “Somebody will send me something and …

The Washington Post reports: Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought a meeting last week with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to discuss the possibility of serving in her administration, perhaps as a Cabinet secretary, if he throws his support behind her campaign and she wins, according to Kennedy campaign officials. Harris and her advisers have not responded with an …

PolitiFact reports: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled in favor of PolitiFact and its parent organization in a lawsuit filed by Children’s Health Defense, a legal advocacy group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The Aug. 9 ruling affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a complaint brought by the Children’s Health Defense against Meta Platforms and Meta …

Via press release from Robert Kennedy: Independent Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today condemned the openly partisan ruling by Democratic Judge Christina L. Ryba in Albany County Supreme Court against his New York residency and said that he will win on appeal. The ruling came in spite of the fact that Kennedy is registered to vote in New York, …

The New York Post reports: Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. isn’t a resident of New York and will not appear on the Empire State’s ballot, a lower court in Albany ruled late Monday. Justice Christina L. Ryba ordered Kennedy, 70, to not appear on New York’s presidential ballot, a move that will likely lead to efforts to remove …

The Hill reports: “Right now we have enough signatures to be on all 50 states, so… we’ve handed most of them in, some of the states are not yet certified, but we’re gonna be on the ballot in all 50 states, for sure,” Kennedy told Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto. According to a ballot access tracker from The Hill/Decision Desk …

The Texas Tribune reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate, will be on the Texas general election ballot this November. The Texas Secretary of State’s office announced Thursday afternoon that it had accepted Kennedy’s petition to appear on the state ballot with 122,513 valid signatures. The Texas election code required a petition to have at least 113,151 valid …

The Associated Press reports:  Days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. admitted to taking a bear carcass from the side of the road and placing it in Central Park as a prank a decade ago, he said that has been picking up roadkill his “whole life” and once had a “freezer full of it” at home. The comment came as the …

Mother Jones reports: This week in an Albany, New York courtroom, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is fighting a legal challenge that has the potential to sink much of his independent presidential campaign. The dispute is over where he calls home. In a lawsuit that was engineered by Clear Choice PAC, several New York State voters challenged Kennedy’s position on the …

ABC News reports: Robert F. Kennedy is not facing charges over leaving a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park a decade ago. The New York State Department of Environment Conservation (DEC) said the statute of limitations expired after Kennedy said in a video released Sunday that he was responsible for putting a dead bear cub in Central …

The Daily Beast reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently called Donald Trump a “terrible human being” and “probably a sociopath,” according to a report. The independent presidential candidate, who reportedly held talks with Trump last month about endorsing the Republican’s campaign and taking a job in a hypothetical second Trump administration, made disparaging remarks about the former president in text …

The New York Times reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confessed on Sunday that he had left a dead bear cub in Central Park in Manhattan in 2014 because he thought it would be “amusing.” Mr. Kennedy posted a video detailing the bizarre story on social media apparently ahead of an article in The New Yorker. In the video, Mr. Kennedy …

The Hill reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign looks like it is in trouble with Vice President Kamala Harris as the likely Democratic nominee. Kennedy is scrambling to keep the public’s attention — and struggling to keep his moribund presidential bid alive. The independent candidate’s polling, prominent family and unpredictability have kept him on the watchlists of both parties. But …

Mother Jones reports: In a virtual event last week that was billed as a “Latino Town Hall,” presidential candidate and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. unveiled his plan to overhaul addiction treatment programs. Speaking during a live recording of the Latino Capitalist podcast, Kennedy described opioid, antidepressant, and ADHD “addicts” receiving treatment on tech-free “wellness farms,” where they would …

“A few weeks ago, President Biden was ridiculing Vladimir Putin, who won 88% of the vote in Russia, and he said that that was a fixed election because President Putin made sure that no adversaries could challenge him, and also that he had fixed the press so the press wouldn’t cover his adversaries. The Democratic Party succeeded in doing the …

CNBC reports: Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will receive Secret Service protection at the direction of President Joe Biden as a result of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Monday. “In light of this weekend’s events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide …