RFK Jr. Campaign Denounces Consultant’s Anti-Biden Strategy

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is denouncing a campaign consultant’s strategy of enlisting Republicans to help get Kennedy on the ballot in New York and defeat President Joe Biden, a plan the consultant laid out while speaking to members of the GOP on Friday.

In a short video making the rounds Monday on X, Rita Palma is heard saying that to “the Kennedy voter and the (Donald) Trump voter…our mutual enemy is Biden.”

At the gathering, Palma, a Kennedy campaign consultant in New York, shows a slide reading, saying, “Biden counts the 28 Electoral votes in his favor automatically” in the state and that “NY can send a message of independence,” presumably with the help of Republicans.

Democrats are just under half of New York voters, while Republicans are 22 percent and “no affiliation” is at 23 percent, Palma informs the audience. “Bobby is a ‘landing spot’ for disillusioned Democrats,” she notes in the slide.

A Kennedy campaign official told Newsweek: “This was not a campaign event. Palma was speaking as a private citizen and her statements in no way reflect the strategy of the Kennedy campaign, which is to win the White House with votes from former Trump and Biden supporters alike.”

The official said that while Palma is a “ballot access consultant responsible for scheduling volunteer shifts for our upcoming signature collection drive in the Empire State,” she is not involved with electoral strategy.

The video comes amid Kennedy’s effort to gather enough signatures to get himself on the ballot in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia, a crucial step for the success of his independent campaign for the presidency.

The Democratic National Committee has sued to derail Kennedy’s signature-gathering efforts in some states on the grounds he and his campaign are relying on outside groups like the American Values 2024 super PAC to do some of the heavy lifting. American Values has said its effort is independent of the Kennedy campaign, and thus is not in violation of campaign laws.

The video also comes as Democrats worry that Kennedy is gathering more support from their party than from Republicans and, should Kennedy lose the presidency, he’d make it more likely that Trump would win.

Palma, during her presentation to Republicans, appears to lean into that theory, beginning by ensuring that there are “no Biden supporters in the house, right? Okay, good.”

She also says Kennedy is pulling more voters from Biden than he is from Trump, and the DNC has set up a committee to “go after independent candidates…they really mean Bobby, because Bobby is the only third party that anybody is taking seriously.”

She further attempts to woo presumable Trump voters by saying if no candidate gets 270 electoral votes, the House chooses the president, and Republicans have a House majority.

“So who are they going to pick?” she asks. “They’re going to pick Trump. So we’re rid of Biden either way. Does everybody follow that?”

The DNC did not respond to Newsweek’s request for comment. Newsweek attempted to reach Palma via the Kennedy campaign and X. This story will be updated should either party respond.

Amaryllis Fox, Kennedy’s campaign director and daughter-in-law, addressed Palma’s remarks on X, writing: “As an independent movement, our supporters, volunteers, and field organizers come from all sides of the political spectrum and their reasons for supporting Bobby are as disparate as their backgrounds.”

She said Palma was hired a couple of weeks ago for ballot access and has no role in electoral strategy.

“We’re looking into whether any misrepresentations were made. Our campaign champions freedom of speech for all our supporters, volunteers, contractors and staff, as long as they do not claim to speak on our behalf,” Fox wrote.

She ends with: “We intend to defeat both Trump and Biden in November, so the question of which side contributed more votes will be purely academic.”