Exclusive: Outraged Kennedy Volunteers Beg Him Not to Quit For ‘Backroom Deal’ With Trump

In the wake of reports that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will drop out from the presidential race to endorse Republican candidate Donald Trump in exchange for a leadership role in a potential Trump administration, volunteers on the independent candidate’s campaign are in open revolt.

“There are tens of thousands of us who have dedicated the last year of our lives to getting our candidate on the ballot for the sheer reason that Americans have an Independent voice,” one Kennedy organizer told Mediaite on Thursday. “We have the right to vote for who we choose. This is not the time for backroom deals so we get one of the two evils.”

On Wednesday, Mediaite and several other outlets reported that Kennedy is preparing to end his presidential bid and endorse Trump. In an email sent to campaign staff that was obtained by Mediaite, campaign manager Amaryllis Kennedy addressed the speculation that the former Democrat would be exiting the race.

“Any path forward changes the outcome,” she wrote. “With calcified support on both sides of the aisle, this 10+% of the electorate is the only molten force in the race.” She added that an update would be coming Friday, when Kennedy is set to hold a speech near a Trump rally in Pennsylvania.

The organizer slammed the idea that Kennedy would drop out and endorse the Republican nominee. “A million people have said they want the right to vote for [Kennedy], and it is not democratic that the right be taken away from a backroom deal. While we acknowledge and understand how valuable he would be in a Trump administration, it is too early to make that decision.”

“Thousands of people are outraged and upset,” they added.

Mediaite attended a Zoom call on Thursday organized by Kennedy campaign volunteers — dubbed the “People for Kennedy Urgent Call to Action Meeting” — with more than 100 in attendance. The call was emotionally-charged, with some attendees crying at the prospect of Kennedy dropping out.

An attendee who expressed discontent about Kennedy dropping out said during the meeting, “We are facing a big unknown tomorrow and asking you all to come together to see what we can do,” one attendee said during the meeting. “No matter how much we trust [Kennedy], many of us would not vote for Trump. What can we do today?”

Another attendee chimed in with a similar sentiment: “I don’t say these things lightly. We don’t know until it happens what the announcement will be and if he says he will endorse Trump, it will be seen as the two-party system has won again. Him being promised a cabinet position, Trump has gone through cabinet members like candy. I don’t think we can trust Trump. We need to take this into our own hands. I would personally like to force his hand and we should storm social media and make a one to three-minute video of ‘Hey Bobby, this is who I am, this is what I have done, we are a movement. You’ve been warning us for over a year about a two-party system.’ This for me was never about Kennedy, it was about breaking the two-party system.”

Another grassroots volunteer proposed writing in for Kennedy as a protest vote: “There is absolutely nothing stopping us from voting for Bobby and writing him in as a way to protest this.”

“If Kennedy teases withdrawing and endorsing Trump, to the point of staging an announcement in Phoenix when Trump is there too, and then, after detailing everything the Dems have done, announces he’s STAYING IN, that’s a masterstroke. He grabs the spotlight at the close of the Dem convention, shines it on their misconduct, does his moral duty by showing defiance and tenacity, and goes down in history as a hero and example to us all, even if he only gets 4%. If, instead, he withdraws and endorses Trump, he amplifies Harris’s convention bounce, feeds into the Dems’ narrative about him being a Trump plant, rewards their lawfare and media manipulation, does nothing for himself or Trump, and discredits himself forever,” added another concerned attendee.

Multiple volunteers suggested a “money bomb” to infuse the struggling Kennedy campaign with financial aid to show the candidate that supporters are still backing him.

One attendee expressed support for whatever decision Kennedy makes. “We need to trust his judgment,” they wrote in the Zoom chat. “Period. Whatever it is.”

Yet one volunteer, who openly wept, represented the majority opinion of the call: “I’m 1,000 percent about the money bomb, make posts on X because I plead with you all to make videos and tag him and tell him ‘We didn’t come this far to quit.’”

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com