Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is currently running for president as an independent, has called out the Democratic Party for the way it has pushed Vice President Kamala Harris to the fore as their presidential pick without using the proper candidate selection process.
On Sunday, President Biden announced in a statement that he would be dropping his reelection bid, and RFK Jr. applauded him for his choice, saying that his “infirmities were evident to any unbiased observer from the beginning.”
However, he also pointed out how the party shut him out when he originally tried to enter the race as a Democrat, noting that they blocked him from challenging Biden.
“It was this progressive deterioration—and his abandonment of Democratic Party principles—that prompted me to enter the race and ensure American voters had a viable, vigorous alternative to Donald Trump,” he noted.
He accused the party of “rigging” the nomination process, using Harris despite being a “monumentally unpopular vice president” as a way of keeping the donations the Biden campaign has raised thus far as campaign finance rules allow for the transfer of funds from Biden to his running mate.
While it may make sense financially, it does feel manipulative, and RFK Jr. thinks there could be a more suitable candidate out there and that a fairer process should be implemented.
“I call on the Democratic Party to return to its traditional commitment to democracy and exemplify it with an open process. Instead of anointing a candidate hand-picked by DNC elites, the party should use neutral polling to identify the candidate who can best beat Donald Trump. The delegates should then select a nominee based on this information,” he asserted.
$96 million in cash is at stake
The money that RFK Jr. believes was behind the decision to push Harris as the nominee is pretty substantial; Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports show that the campaign had nearly $96 million in cash as of June 30. The Biden campaign changed its official name from “Biden for President” to “Harris for President” just hours after Biden announced he was pulling out; as his vice president, she was already listed as a candidate on Biden’s original filing.
This means that Harris should technically have access to these funds as the new nominee, according to campaign finance lawyers, although there are some concerns that this could be challenged.
Some lawyers believe the Biden campaign does not possess the legal authority to transfer the funds to her.
GOP campaign finance lawyer Charlie Spies told the media: “Biden can’t transfer his money to Harris because it was raised under his own name, and there is no legal mechanism for it to have been raised jointly with Harris before they were their party’s nominees.”
FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey acknowledged that this is new territory for the committee, stating: “Replacing a presidential candidate and handing over his committee to someone else is unprecedented under current campaign finance law. It raises a host of open questions about whether it is legal, what limits apply and what contributors’ rights are.”
Others, like FEC Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum, who was appointed by Biden, insist that Biden’s money can remain with Harris as long as she stays on the ticket.
It’s not surprising Democrats are so desperate to hold onto the money; new FEC filings over the weekend indicate that the Trump campaign has more cash on hand than Biden.
However, even within her own party, Harris doesn’t seem to have a lot of support beyond her utility in holding onto Biden’s war chest. Some Democrats are hoping to see other candidates step forward, such as Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear or Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, when the nominee is officially declared at the Democratic National Convention in August.
Unfortunately, we already know that it’s hard for Democrats to resist the temptation to cheat in order to further their agenda, so we’ll probably see Harris’s name on the ballot in November.
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