Tonight, a top republican
strategist warning
rfk jr could swing the 2024
election to joe biden.
Karl rove writing in a wall street
journal op ed
that kennedy is quote,
outlandish claims and moonbat ideas
will, quote,
pry more than a few wackos off Mr.
Trump, perhaps enough
to hand the election to Mr. Biden.
Well, this comes as major differences
are emerging between Kennedy
and his running mate, Nicolle Shanahan.
Even McCain is out front.
The next vice president
of the United States, Nicole Shanahan.
Nicole Shanahan, is not a familiar name
in national politics. We've got this.
And before
choosing her
as his running mate, independent
presidential candidate
Robert F Kennedy Jr
didn't appear to know her either.
As recently as a year ago,
I really didn't think
much of Bobby Kennedy
because I didn't know much about him.
Still,
I'm confident
that there is no American more qualified
Nicole Shanahan to play this role.
Now, after a series of interviews
meant to introduce
the Silicon Valley lawyer
to voters, some key
compatibility questions
have been raised as well,
such as are Shanahan
and Kennedy aligned on abortion?
I wouldn't leave it to the states, right.
I would I would say completely.
It's up to them.
I believe
we should leave it to the woman.
But in an interview
with the Sage Steel Show podcast
this month,
Shanahan seemed unclear
about where the top of the ticket stands.
My understanding
is that
he absolutely believes
in the limits on on abortion.
Kennedy supports abortion
limits up to fetal viability,
which experts say occur
between 23 to 24 weeks.
Shanahan has shown support
for federally restricting abortion
between 15 and 18 weeks.
And where
does the duo stand
on Israel's war with Hamas?
Kennedy has been unflinching
in backing Israel.
I would continue aid Israel's
fighting a defensive war.
It's not a war of choice.
While Shanahan has been more critical.
But, you know,
starting a war with Hamas right
now is not just starting a war
with Hamas.
It is
it is
engaging in something in the Middle East
that was not very well planned.
Both Republicans
and Democrats have pounced
on the relatively unknown
independent, saying
the wealthy California native
was only picked for her pocketbook.
She's more liberal than junior by far.
Not a serious person
and only a pot of cash
to help her get her.
No chance candidate on the ballot.
The New York Times
reports Shanahan
received around $1 billion after recently
divorcing Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
The threat of a third party effort
with deep pockets has prompted Democrats
to target Kennedy's
campaign over concerns
he could hurt Biden's reelection chances.
It's more looking like she's
more like a checkbook in this situation
because she is
She was only involved
really when he needed
to get on the ballot in April.
The Kennedy campaign
raised more than $10 million.
But some 8 million of that haul
came directly from Shanahan
as the pair seeks
to forge a path together
on the campaign trail.
And Aaron, the campaign
acknowledging Kennedy and Shanahan do,
in fact, differ on abortion.
But telling me in a statement, in part,
both are aligned
with the emerging national consensus
of no restrictions
up until a certain point
and restrictions thereafter.
Meanwhile, Kennedy continues
to have a strong showing
in the polls
for a third party candidate
in the latest Marquette poll.
Kennedy getting 17% behind Trump's 40%
and Biden's 37%. Erin.
All right, Eva, thank you very much.
Let's go beyond the numbers
with Harry Enten.
So, Harry,
this is
this is crucial, this whole conversation.
RFK Junior
is going to speak
at the Libertarian convention tomorrow.
Trump is also speaking
at the Libertarian convention,
both going after those votes, obviously.
How does rfk Jr.
Do with people who maybe last time around
didn't find a candidate yet,
those who are disenchanted
with the two major parties. Right.
Those who didn't vote for Biden or Trump
or didn't
actually even cast a ballot back in 2020.
Look at who
those folks are supporting right now,
which you essentially has a
have is a two person race
with RFK
Jr at 37% and Donald Trump at 30%.
Joe Biden way back at 12%.
And I think this gives you
an indication of why
both of them are going to that
libertarian convention.
They both believe that they can appeal
to third parties,
those folks who support third parties
and essentially say those people
who are disenchanted with the system.
RFK wants to be their guy.
But Donald Trump also
wants to be their guy.
It's very interesting.
37% of the people who sat out last time.
Okay.
So Karl Rove,
I shared part of that op ed.
He says RFK
Junior is going to take more votes
from Trump.
Obviously, we've heard
I've heard this
argued every which way to Sunday.
What are the numbers tell you?
Yeah, at this particular point,
it does look like RFK
Jr is going to take more votes
away from Trump than Joe Biden.
But it's not a landslide.
And I think that's
the important thing here.
If you look at the latest
Quinnipiac University poll, what you see
is that the folks who support
RFK jr in the 313 way,
when you squeeze it down to a two way,
you see that
Donald Trump wins 51% of them,
joe biden wins 37%.
Now, again,
that's not a landslide,
but it's something that could matter
in a tight election, right?
It's the type of thing
that could make the difference
if RFK Jr is in fact stays in the race
and continues
to pull those high percentage
as Eva was talking.
That's right.
Especially in states that had, what,
10,000 vote margins, Arizona and Georgia.
We're looking at you, Nicole Shanahan.
Eva was going through
some of the policy differences there.
She is one of his only donors, actually,
not just a huge one,
but maybe one of the only. Yeah.
You know,
if we look at the campaign committee,
you know,
if we look
what percentage of the donors
last month of the money that came in
came from her.
We're talking about north of 70%.
You see that? 74%.
But if you look at the email,
American values 2020 for super PAC,
Timothy Mellon,
who's a billionaire who also donates
to a lot of pro-Trump causes,
81% of the money came from him.
So the fact is, most of the money for
for Kennedy is coming from to people.
It's really fascinating
on so many levels. He's cynical.
He claims to be a small money guy
speaking for the small people.
But in fact, it's for the large donors
that are for him.
All right, Harry, thank you very much.