Politics ain’t beanbag, they say. No, it can be quite a nasty business (which makes me question my fascination with it at times). Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his running mate Nicole Shanahan can attest to that, as Shanahan notes in a recent interview she gave to Tom Bilyeu on his “Impact Theory” podcast.
Rumors are swirling that Kennedy is about to bow out of the race — and he’s now announced his intention to deliver an address Friday afternoon in Phoenix, Arizona.
RFK Jr. Camp Says He’s Considering Dropping Out of Race,
but Sends Mixed Message on What Happens Next
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Address Nation Friday – Will He Jump on Team Trump?
Initially, there were rumors that RFK Jr. was in talks with both the Trump and Harris campaign, but Shanahan set the record straight in a rather frank discussion with Bilyeu. The full video, which runs just shy of an hour, may be viewed below, but Bilyeu posted the pertinent snippet to his X account on Tuesday to provide some context to those rumors.
Since clips are going viral of @RobertKennedyJr ‘s VP @NicoleShanahan announcing on my show that they’re considering dropping out and endorsing @realDonaldTrump, here’s a longer clip that gives the full context. pic.twitter.com/f7cN36q5VO
— Tom Bilyeu (@TomBilyeu) August 20, 2024
Shanahan gets to the crux of the matter at about the 2:30 mark, but here’s some of their exchange:
BILYEU: Alright, there were rumors going around that RFK was in talks with Trump, that he was in talks with the Harris camp for a potential endorsement to either of them if they could give him, I presume, a spot in one of their cabinets — is there any truth to it? Would love to hear about that.
SHANAHAN: Definitely not in talks with Harris. Definitely never have brought up this idea of an endorsement with Harris. Definitely have never brought up a cabinet position with Harris. So, those, those are the MSM just taking something and spinning it in a way that makes, you know, their chosen political group look good — fake news.
With, you know, that being said, we have offered to talk to everybody about what your policies are, who’s going to be in your cabinet? Do you want to hear any of our takes on policy and what might work? We’ve open-sourced our platform very proudly. And I will say that Trump has taken genuine, sincere interest in our policies around chronic disease. He takes it seriously. For that reason, I think it behooves us to sit and see if we can actually make some real change. And if that is a “unity party,” I think that it is something that we absolutely owe to the American public — to explore.
BILYEU: What would a unity party look like?
SHANAHAN: I, I think it would be on Day One making sure that our health — the arm of the government responsible for health, HHS, is directed by someone we can trust, someone without ties to Big Pharma, someone who understands the foundations of — and preconditions of — healthy life, somebody who is not going to sell out our children to profiteering.
Now, here’s where it gets particularly interesting.
BILYEU: Okay, when would you guys make that decision? There’s obviously huge concerns that you guys are a spoiler candidate, and so I understand there’ll be a public-facing message, but I’m very curious how you guys think about that.
SHANAHAN: We did not start this campaign — I did not put in tens of millions of dollars — to be a spoiler candidate. I put in tens of millions of dollars to win — to fix this country, to do the right thing.
I will say that Clear Choice — this PAC, this DNC-aligned PAC — that was created specifically to take us out has spent millions of dollars to take us out. They have, unfortunately, turned us into a spoiler. And we don’t want to be a spoiler. We wanted to win. We wanted a fair shot. The DNC made that impossible for us. They have banned us, shadowbanned us, kept us off stages, manipulated polls, used lawfare against us, sued us in every possible state. They’ve even planted insiders into our campaign to disrupt it and to create actual legal issues for us. And I mean, the extent by which the sabotage they’ve unleashed upon us, it’s mindblowing. I mean, we’re still learning new ways that they have sabotaged us.
I really wanted a fair shot at this election, and I believed in the America that I – [as] a little girl — pledged allegiance to. And that is not, that is not where we are today. And it’s not because of the Republican Party taking us out. It is exclusively because of the Democratic Party taking us out. And I am so disappointed I ever helped them. I am so disappointed that I helped Chuck Schumer, in that Georgia runoff, secure a majority. It’s probably one of the biggest mistakes of my life. And it’s, it’s really devastating.
So, to answer your question, we, we are not spoilers — that was never our motivation. We really wanted a fair shot. I think…had we had a fair shot, we would have won. I still would love to see, in the last 80 days of this election, some miracle play out where we get a chance to debate — I don’t think they’re going to let us. And, you know, given this, I think we are taking a very serious look at making sure that the people that have corrupted our fair and free democracy do not end up in office in November. It’s hard — I mean, it’s really hard, Tom, to say these words, because it’s also acknowledging how bad things are.
It looks like we won’t know until Friday what the campaign will do, and it’s difficult to quantify the way(s) in which Kennedy endorsing Trump might help (or hurt). But it strikes me that both Kennedy and Shanahan may be effective voices in calling out the corruption of the Democrat Party, and I suspect Trump has been taking that all into consideration as he maps out the closing weeks of the campaign.
