Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged rallygoers in Michigan on Friday not to vote for him after he failed to get his name off the presidential ballot.
Kennedy, who endorsed former President Donald Trump when suspending his independent run for president in August, promised to remove his name in every state that could tip the balance of the election. But he failed to meet the deadline in Michigan, which Trump won by 10,000 votes in 2016.
A federal judge rejected a last-ditch lawsuit from Kennedy last week, days after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled against him.
“My name is going to appear on the Michigan ballot, but I don’t want you to vote for me,” Kennedy told the crowd at a rally near Grand Rapids. “I want you to vote for Donald J. Trump.”
In a 30-minute speech introducing Trump, Kennedy stewed over Democratic efforts to keep him off the ballot before he suspended his campaign. He was thought to be a spoiler for the former president, but Kennedy pulled votes from Vice President Kamala Harris as well.
“The Democratic Party spent tens of millions of dollars to defame me, to punish perjuries against me, to publish fake news against me, to marginalize me, to make me look like a crazy person,” Kennedy said.
He called Trump critical of him, but in a way that was “congenial.” Trump had called Kennedy a “radical left liberal” and “Democrat plant,” but in private, he courted his endorsement, even suggesting there may be a place for him in his administration.
On Friday, Kennedy said the only way he can “get to Washington, D.C.,” is if Trump wins in November. Known for his conspiratorial bent on vaccines and the food industry, Kennedy has previously expressed interest in a health role under Trump.
Trump’s rally comes hours after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in New York. The two leaders shook hands before the cameras, but Kennedy claimed Trump was silently seething over the U.S. aid sent to Ukraine’s war against Russia.
“I know what he was thinking during that meeting: ‘I want to turn this guy over and shake him by the legs and shake all the money out of his pockets,” Kennedy said. “We need to bring that money home.”
Trump only mentioned his visit with Zelensky in passing, calling it a “good meeting,” but two days earlier, he laid into Zelensky at a rally in North Carolina for “making little nasty aspersions” toward him.
Zelensky had told the New Yorker that Trump’s promise to end the war was little more than a campaign slogan.
Kennedy spent the remainder of his remarks recounting why he endorsed Trump, telling the crowd he identified with his anti-establishment messaging and aversion to foreign wars.
Later, he got a shoutout from Trump.
“Getting a Kennedy to endorse a Trump Republican, that was a big deal,” Trump said.
“He’s a big part of what we’re doing,” he added. “He’s a good man. He’s a good man.”
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Trump will hold a second event in Michigan on Friday evening, a town hall expected to focus on Michigan’s auto industry. Meanwhile, Harris spent her Friday in Arizona making her first trip to the border since becoming the Democratic nominee for president.
She is expected to accuse Trump of killing a border security deal in the Senate, an attack Trump called a “lie” in Michigan.