Things were bound to come to a head on this front in due time.
Rick Moran recently reported on Trump’s apparent indignation at some of RFK Jr.’s recent public comments, apparently in response to polling showing that Trump likely views the independent as a growing electoral threat who threatens his candidacy possibly as much as Biden’s — a safe assumption.
Related: Why Are Both Sides Now Attacking Robert F. Kennedy?
On that score, Trump is not helping himself.
Via The Independent (emphasis added):
Donald Trump has begun lashing out at independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr amid recent polling indicating the anti-vaxxer is attracting the support of potential Trump voters.
Over the weekend, Mr Trump made at least four Truth Social posts attacking Mr Kennedy, falsely asserting he is a “Democratic plant” installed to help President Joe Biden win, that he is more liberal than any other candidate and that his views on vaccines are “fake.”
“A Vote for Junior’ would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE, that could swing either way, but would only swing against the Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him.” Mr Trump wrote on Saturday.
The sudden ramp-up of attacks arrives after polling from Quinnipiac, Marist and NBC News shows that Mr Kennedy’s campaign is taking votes away from Mr Trump.
An NBC News poll shows that in match-ups between Mr Trump and Mr Biden, the former president has at least a two-point lead. But when Mr Kennedy is thrown into the mix, Mr Biden then takes the lead. Marist polling indicates Mr Kennedy has managed to increase his support among independents from 21 per cent to 27 per cent – meanwhile, Mr Trump has gone from 38 per cent to 30 per cent.
What does RFK having “fake vaccine views” mean? That his views aren’t sincere, or that they’re wrong, or something else? We’re left to speculate because Trump often writes in hieroglyphics.
On the morality score, there is very little question in most rational people’s minds not blinded by ideology or rank partisanship that the COVID-19 mRNA rollout, which Trump infamously oversaw and has refused to take responsibility for, was a total disaster. It might qualify as genocidal; maybe we’ll have to wait until the final death toll is accurately counted — assuming it ever is, which vested interests are hellbent on preventing.
On the strategic front — much less important cosmically but more important as a realpolitik matter than the morality —Trump singling out RFK Jr.’s vaccine views as the object of focus of attack is politically idiotic. Whoever advised him that attacking RFK over vaccines needs to be re-assigned to desk duty for a long, hard think.
Related: Trump Self-Congratulates, Brags About COVID Vaccines AGAIN
RFK Jr. poses an electoral threat to both Biden and Trump, each for different reasons. On the GOP and GOP-adjacent side of the ledger, his main draw is his forthright opposition to the mRNA agenda long before it became a cause du jour on the right.
RFK Jr.’s vax position, for the voters that Trump most needs to move away from RFK and towards him, is his single greatest strength. No politician worth his salt would attack his opponent at his point of greatest strength — the polar opposite of Sun Tzu’s prescription in “The Art of War.”
In a simpler time, interestingly, Trump reportedly took a much more inquisitive and strategically sound approach to the anti-vax movement (again, long before the COVID melodrama opened the eyes of the vast majority of independent-minded independents and conservatives).
Via Politico, 2017 (emphasis added):
President-elect Donald Trump has asked Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a major source of disproved theories imputing harm to vaccines, to chair a “commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity,” Kennedy told reporters after a meeting in Trump Tower on Tuesday.
Kennedy, who said he accepted the assignment, has been insisting for over a decade that traces of mercury in a preservative formerly used in childhood vaccines caused a massive increase in autism diagnoses. He has clung to the theory despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.
Later in the day, however, Trump appeared to be backing off Kennedy’s report. In a statement released by the transition team, Trump said he “enjoyed his discussion” with Kennedy and was “exploring the possibility of forming a committee on Autism, which affects many families; however no decisions have been made at this time.”
Related: SHOCK Poll: A Quarter of Americans Say They Know Someone Personally Killed by COVID Jab
This is pure speculation on my part, but I would guess that what transpired from the conclusion of the Trump-RFK 2017 vaccine czar meeting to Trump’s team distancing itself was a series of irate phone calls from various powerful constituencies with national electoral sway.
For profiteering and social engineering reasons, criticism of the pharmaceutical industry has historically been one of those third-rail issues. If I and my allies in independent media have any say, that’s all done with.
It’s a new day.
