OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Most mainstream Democrats and their media allies refuse to acknowledge that President Joe Biden has some serious competition for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, but that doesn’t negate the fact that he does.
No sooner than longtime environmental lawyer and activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared his candidacy earlier this month, he began polling in the double digits. And according to a just-released Fox News survey, his stock is rising among Democratic voters.
And it’s getting the attention of longtime Democrat advocates like comedian Bill Mahor, host of HBO’s “Real Time.”
“During Friday’s ‘Overtime’ segment,” which is broadcast on CNN, “Maher read a submitted viewer question asking for the panel’s reaction to a Fox News poll that showed RFK Jr., at 19%, a substantial percentage against President Biden, who despite how he benefits from the power of incumbency is only at 62% among Democratic primary voters,” Fox News Digital reported.
Meanwhile, the only other declared candidate for the Democratic nomination, spiritual guru and former 2020 presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson, only got 9 percent in the same survey.
“I must say, I’m surprised that right off the bat, he’s polling at 19 percent,” Maher said in response to RFK Jr.’s increasing popularity, while Biden’s approval sinks to its lowest point of his presidency.
“The Fifth Column” podcast co-host Michael Moynihan reacted by noting that several other polls showed as much as 70 percent of Americans don’t want Biden to seek re-election, which he says proves “people are looking for alternatives.”
Moynihan also noted that the Democratic Party leadership is moving behind the scenes to protect the incumbent despite the fact that most of the party’s voters want to move on from Biden, who many argue is clearly struggling physically and mentally.
“And I really wish it wasn’t Robert Kennedy, but the DNC right now is lining up the troops and is going to prevent him from doing any damage,” Moynihan said. “They’re not going to have debates. There is going to be no primary debates. He is just going to be pushed aside. He is running as a Democrat. If he decides to then run as a third-party candidate, you have a situation.”
Moynihan was asked why he didn’t want RFK Jr. as the leading Democratic alternative to Biden. He responded by highlighting Kennedy’s controversial past positions and rhetoric, such as his opposition to vaccines, proposal to jail climate change deniers, and praise for former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
“He’s becoming more conspiratorial too — the sort of ‘they’re censoring me all the time.’ I just don’t — you’re a Kennedy. Your last book sold 2 million copies. No one is censoring you,” Moynihan said.
Maher, meanwhile, rejected those who accuse RFK Jr. of getting COVID wrong while pointing out how the U.S. government “got a lot wrong.”
“He might be getting stuff wrong, but he’s not a nut,” Maher said. “He’s not a nut, and he’s not a nut about COVID either or vaccines.”
In an interview on one of Tucker Carlson’s last Fox News programs, RFK Jr. pointed out that under Biden’s administration, the majority of Americans are struggling economically.
“The general theme in my [campaign kickoff] speech was this corrupt merger of state and corporate power, which has which is turning our country into a corporate kleptocracy. Into a system of… cushy socialism for the rich and this kind of brutal, merciless capitalism for the poor,” he said.
“We have 57 percent of American citizens could not put their hands on a thousand dollars if they have an emergency. A quarter of our citizens are hungry,” he continued.
“So we’re cutting welfare and food stamps by 90 percent, and we’re paying, and we’re bailing out the bankers, we’re paying for a war that, you know, we can’t afford,” he said, a reference to the tens of billions sent to Ukraine.
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And the way that we do this is by printing money. We’ve printed 10 centuries of money in the last 14 years. And that is what causes inflation, which raises food prices and which is a tax on the poor,” RFK Jr. told Carlson.
“You know, we’ve raised food prices for basic foods like chicken, dairy, and milk by 76% in the last two years. And now we’re cutting people’s food stamps and bailing out banks the same month. It doesn’t make any sense, and we need to get rid of this kind of corporate control government,” he said.
