The Morning Briefing: RFK Jr.'s X-Factor Cred Is Picking Up Steam

Top O' the Briefing

Happy Thursday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Anzerumon was shocked, delighted, and grateful the first time he discovered a leftover burrito in his cargo jumper.

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that Nicole Shanahan would be his running mate, I, like many others, thought that it could only hurt Biden. She's a radical leftist, after all, and would probably drive away any of the center-right libertarian types who were flirting with the idea of voting for Kennedy.

At the time, I thought RFK Jr.'s entertainment and distraction value for the campaign would wane. Let's be honest — the RFK Jr. sideshow is a welcome respite from the hyper-charged negativity of Trump vs. Biden 2.0.

Near the end of the Briefing the morning after the announcement, I said that I hoped Kennedy would continue "to be a mild source of dyspepsia for the Biden administration." They're already popping Prilosec like crazy over on Team Biden whenever they're waiting to see what drunken Klingon dialect he's going to speak in during a public appearance. The thought of some added stress that's not related to the Big Guy amuses and delights me.

Because a big chunk of the electorate is dissatisfied with the rerun choices this year, third-party fever is heating up ever so slightly. RFK Jr. obviously can't win the election, but the more Biden bumbles, the better chance he and Shanahan have of draining some votes away from the Dems.

As Matt wrote yesterday, that prospect has California's Rep. Ro Khanna feeling a bit skittish:

The panic and desperation continue. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is urging Shanahan to consider stepping aside because he’s concerned that the independent ticket will be a spoiler for Biden and result in Donald Trump getting elected.
“While I completely respect third parties and the right for anyone to run for public office, I am deeply concerned that Robert F. Kennedy’s name on the ballot in swing states could tilt the election in Donald Trump’s favor,” Khanna wrote in a letter to Shanahan, which CBS News shared. He cited recent polling indicating that President Trump's numbers improve when Kennedy and other third-party candidates are included.

Once more, with feeling: we're not big fans of the polls here at the Morning Briefing. However, for those who do trust the polls, the numbers get unpleasant for Biden in any state where he and Trump are close when RFK Jr. is added to the mix.

Back before everything went haywire, Democrats weren't the protest vote types. That was a Republican thing. GOP voters were far more likely to just stay home or vote for an alternative candidate who didn't stand a chance of winning

The Democratic hive mind is still strong, but it used to be a lot stronger. Democrats might squawk a bit during the lead-up to an election, feigning more disgruntlement than they actually felt. When election day rolled around, they would dutifully vote for the Democrat.

Times have changed, thanks to the desiccated husk in the Oval Office.

The Democrats and their flying monkeys in the mainstream media have taken plenty of shots at RFK ever since he entered the race. He's still a Kennedy, though, and they're Dem royalty. There is only so far they can go when attacking him.

Matt reports that Khanna's attempt to publicly harass Shanahan into leaving the ticket has deteriorated into a spat. Khanna even resorted to some pathetic concern trolling:

Khanna then responded in a post on X, showing a screenshot of a text message he sent to Shanahan, adding, "Nicole has every right to be on the ticket. My point to her both publicly and privately has been that RFK’s ticket threatens the very issues she cares about — such as climate and abortion rights and to welcome her into the Democratic Party."

What, no Nazi or "dictator" rhetoric? Is Khanna not on the DNC's email list?

We can probably expect the Dem propagandists in the MSM to start being a little rougher on Shanahan going forward. She's not a Kennedy, after all.

For the moment, RFK Jr. and Shanahan are thorns in the Biden campaign's side. We can only hope they'll continue to cause distress all the way until Election Day.

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