Dozens of former colleagues of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are urging him to withdraw from the presidential race, citing concerns that his candidacy will inadvertently aid Donald Trump’s re-election.
In a full-page ad running in six swing states, the NRDC staffers, including co-founder John Adams and President Manish Bapna, supported President Biden, labeling Kennedy’s campaign a “vanity candidacy” that would only benefit Trump.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr (Credits: PBS)
A dozen environmental advocacy groups, including the Sierra Club and Sunrise Movement, also published an open letter denouncing Kennedy’s “false environmentalist claims” and labeling him a “dangerous conspiracy theorist and science denier.”
They argue that Kennedy’s campaign promotes debunked conspiracy theories and co-opts the credibility of the environmental movement for personal gain.
Kennedy, who spent nearly three decades at the NRDC as a senior attorney, has promised to prioritize environmental issues, including curbing logging, mining, and oil drilling and implementing a nationwide ban on fracking.
Robert Kennedy Jr (Credits: Jewish News Syndicate)
However, his campaign has been criticized for promoting misleading and debunked conspiracy theories, including his longstanding belief that vaccines cause autism.
The ad and open letter suggest that Kennedy has no hope of winning and would only succeed in taking votes away from Biden, potentially helping Trump win in November. Kennedy has pushed back, stating President Biden “does not need my help to lose to Donald Trump.”
However, with Trump leading Biden by less than a percentage point in a hypothetical three-way match-up with Kennedy, who is polling at 7 percent, Kennedy’s former colleagues and environmental groups are urging him to drop out to prevent inadvertently aiding Trump’s re-election.
