Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accusing the campaigns for President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump of "collusion" with CNN, says he will file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission over his potentially being blocked from taking the stage with them at next month's debate.
"There's strong evidence that's been reported in the mainstream media of collusion between the Trump campaign, the Biden campaign, particularly the Biden campaign, and CNN," Kennedy told Scripps News about the debate, planned for June 27.
To participate in the debate, candidates must be carrying at least 15% of the support in four separate polls that CNN recognizes and be on enough ballots to get 270 electoral votes.
The current polls have Kennedy at under 9%, with Biden and Trump running neck-and-neck at just over 40%.
Kennedy told Scripps News' "The Race" that his campaign "will have enough signatures for 343 electoral votes, so we'll qualify."
Kennedy initially ran as a Democrat but then switched to a race as an independent, and claims he entered politics as an outsider, despite his family ties, including his father Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle, late President John F. Kennedy, brothers who were assassinated within five years of each other.
However, 15 members of the Kennedy family have endorsed Biden over him, and he told Scripps News that they are entitled to their opinions, including disagreement on issues such as Biden and the war in Ukraine.
Trump initially said he would vote for Kennedy "every single time" rather than Biden, but after a New York Times poll showing that Kennedy is pulling votes from Trump, the former president has also been launching attacks on Kennedy in addition to Biden.
Kennedy responded that Trump's words were "unhinged" and that he was "frightened."
Still, Kennedy has said he would be open to pardoning Trump for cases against him, including the charges filed in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, protests.
"I'll look at pardons for anybody, but I'm not going to start announcing pardons for people," he said in the interview. "It would be improper for me to do that unless there was really clear and convincing evidence that they were not guilty."
Kennedy also defended his stances on other key political issues, including his comments that he is "troubled" about young people being able to get puberty blockers, and said that if he is elected, he will make a federal standard that will prohibit people under the age of 18 from taking puberty blockers or undergo gender reassignment surgery.
"We don't allow kids to drink," he told Scripps News. "We don't allow them to drive, and to make these kinds of consequential decisions before you're 18."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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