It was a foul week for RFK Jr.’s presidential marketing campaign.
Not solely has she confronted a plethora of memes which have flooded the web since information of her “parasitic brain-eating worm” got here out; Kennedy additionally discovered himself in sizzling water with the pro-life motion.
On Might 8, the impartial presidential hopeful was featured on former ESPN anchor Sage Steele’s podcast. Till then, RFK had not mentioned the difficulty of abortion a lot—as his marketing campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Speer famous. The Washington Submit that he would fairly not “add gas to the hearth” or “be on the topic” of abortion.
Though he acknowledged that the choice to have an abortion needs to be “as much as the girl,” not the federal government (federal or state), Kennedy additionally went on report saying, “Each abortion is a tragedy. A lot of them depart a lady with everlasting trauma.”
When pressed on whether or not he supported a lady’s “proper to decide on” till start, Kennedy, after some hesitation, stated he would.
This can be a radical view, even for individuals who declare to be pro-choice, and a complicated place for RFK to take at this level in his marketing campaign.
Even Kennedy’s working mate, Nicole Shanahan, was stunned by RFK’s new abortion stance.
“That is not Bobby’s place, not less than so far as I perceive it,” Shanahan stated on his personal episode of Steele’s podcast. “My understanding with Bobby’s place is that, you realize, each abortion is a tragedy, a lack of life…. I do not know the place it got here from.”
As just lately as August 2023, Kennedy stated he would help a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks. “I consider that the choice to abort a child within the first three months of life needs to be as much as the girl,” Kennedy instructed NBC. “As soon as a baby is viable exterior the womb, I believe the state has an curiosity in defending that youngster.”
His marketing campaign then claimed that he “misunderstood” the query: “Mr. Kennedy’s place on abortion is that it’s all the time a lady’s proper to decide on…. He doesn’t help laws banning abortion.”
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Both manner, the pro-life motion is up in arms over Kennedy’s latest assertion.
The end result of this interview might function a menace to the already doubtful success of RFK’s marketing campaign, as he has traditionally appealed to right-wing voters who’re undecided about whether or not they are going to solid their ballots for Trump in November.
