Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes the American people are being lied to and fooled by their government, and he says he’s running his campaign because he’s tired of it.
“The government is gaslighting us,” Kennedy said, “and the politicians are going along with it. They’re consumed by self-ambition and by tribalism, by politics, by the governments of fear. And we need somebody else who actually, you know, just loves our country and wants and… sees the train wreck that’s happening right now and is going to do something about it.”
Kennedy spoke with KCBS Radio one day ahead of the announcement of his Vice-Presidential running mate in Oakland, California, and when asked why he’s mounting an independent bid for the Presidency after initially running as a Democrat, he said he doesn’t recognize the 2024 edition of the Democratic Party.
“I just saw our country taking a wrong turn and the Democratic party being part of that, driving that,” Kennedy said. “I saw the Democratic party depart from the party that I was raised with, a party that was very anti-war, very skeptical towards corporate power. It was on the side of the middle class, the working poor. It was opposed to Big Pharma, Big Agriculture, the Wall Street banks, the Fed, all of these masters of the universe, the corporate titans that now have captured our public agencies and turned them predatory against the American public.
“And it was for free speech and adamantly against any participation by the government in the censorship of American speech. And now the Democratic party has walked away from those traditional values. If you took all of the priorities that my father and my uncle had, President Kennedy, and listed them, I would check every one of those boxes. But I don’t think the current Democratic party is doing that.”
However, Kennedy says the Democrats aren’t the only ones to blame for what he sees as a nation on the brink of serious financial difficulties, calling it “a crisis situation” never before seen in America.
“We have $34 trillion in debt. We’re paying more to pay the interest on that than our entire defense budget,” Kennedy said. “Within five years, half of every dollar collected in taxes will go to servicing the debt. This is not sustainable.”
Kennedy said the two men most responsible for the country’s current status deep in the red financially are currently the American people’s two most prominent choices to lead for the next four years, which in his opinion, means maintaining an unsustainable status quo.
“The people who did the most run up that debt – President Trump and President Biden – are now running for office against each other,” he said. “Our country has been completely taken over by the ‘War Machine.’”
In particular, Kennedy called out former President Trump for reneging on 2016 campaign promises regarding the American military by his appointment of John Bolton, who Kennedy referred to as “the swamp creature himself” and “the speartip of the military industrial complex,” to National Security Advisor of the United States in 2018.
But he had anti-war vitriol for current President Joe Biden as well.
“President Biden is 100% behind wars and more wars, and this is destroying our moral authority. It’s making us less safe,” he said. “And it is absolutely eviscerating the middle class in this country.”
As for his choice for running mate, Kennedy admitted to a relatively diverse list of people he spoke to in regards to who he’d choose to be his next-in-line for the White House. The list, Kennedy said, included a number of well-known celebrities including television host Mike Rowe, NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and rapper/activist Killer Mike, as well as the person many believe will be his choice, businesswoman Nicole Shanahan.
While he wouldn’t give the scoop on this decision, he did outline what he said he viewed as important qualities for the person who would serve as his Vice President.
“We were looking for somebody who could represent young people – millennials and Gen Z,” he said. “They’re the priority of my campaign just as young people were, in 1968, the priority of my father’s campaign and, in 1960, my uncle’s.
“They’re the future of our country, and they’re bearing the brunt of the bad leadership that we’ve had in the past,” Kennedy continued. “So I really wanted somebody young. I think Nicole is 38 years old. I wanted somebody who’s super smart. I wanted an athlete who can inspire Americans to get healthy again. And, you know, I wanted people who can do critical thinking, who have open minds, who will listen to people and listen with compassion.
“And I wanted somebody who’s committed to ending and unraveling the war machine and the corporate capture.”
Kennedy then expounded on what would make Shanahan a good choice.
“Nicole actually has so many qualifications,” he said. “She spent a lot of her lifetime in regenerative agriculture and restoring soils and reducing the toxicity from processed foods. We now have a thousand ingredients in our foods that are illegal in other countries, and Nicole has been at the forefront addressing those issues.”
Shanahan hails from Oakland, the site of Kennedy’s upcoming running mate announcement, leading many to believe she will be the selection.
You can hear the full interview with Kennedy by clicking on the link above.
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