On Tuesday, CNN This Morning host Kasie Hunt asked former White House correspondent Margaret Talev which major party candidate would suffer the most damage if Robert Kennedy Jr. were on the ballot in November. With the presidential election drawing near, RFK Jr. Kennedy was at 15 percent in the polls. Hunt described RFK Jr. as “dangerous” for the Biden team after he reportedly met the requirements to get on the Michigan ballot, a critical state President Biden was faltering in.
Former President Donald Trump and Kennedy attended the Libertarian Party’s convention last Saturday as they worked to potentially win over third-party voters. Talev noted that Trump “has made inroads into the Libertarian Party just as he has made some inroads into every facet of American politics” but followed that by saying Kennedy has the potential to be a “spoiler” in the upcoming presidential election.
When Hunt asked Talev which majority party candidate would suffer the most damage if Kennedy was on the ballot, her answer speculated that both candidates would be affected. Talev stated that he was seen, by swing voters, as a middle ground between Trump and Biden’s policies. Describing him as a “fascination to many” who may not know his policies or stances on certain issues outside of knowing the “Kennedy” family name.
Hunt discusses how “dangerous” it would be for the Biden administration if RFK Jr. was to be on the Michigan ballot. “How dangerous is that for the Biden team considering that there are so many people there who are so unhappy with what's going on in terms of Gaza and Biden there?” she wondered.
The RFK Jr. campaign announced last month that the Natural Law Party, a minor party with ballot access, nominated them in the state of Michigan. Michigan, typically a blue state, voted 50.6 percent for Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Michigan has the highest percentage of Arab Americans at 2.1 percent which is one of the reasons why Talev claims that Michigan is a crucial state to win in the election. Many young adults in Michigan are inclined to vote for the candidate who will assist the Palestinian civilians. The state also has the highest number of United Auto Workers in America rounding out at 600,000 individuals working in the manufacturing industry.
Talev ends by saying, “But right now, the concern really is not just Arab American voters but younger voters and the fact that so many of the auto union workers that were once strongly affiliated with the Democratic Party could now be susceptible to at least a white male auto workers.”
Hunt responded to this statement by claiming that “it happened in 2016” despite the UAW Union endorsing Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.
Seemingly trying to have it both ways, they described Kennedy as both a “danger” and a “fascination” throughout this interview.
Click "Expand" to view the transcripts:
CNN This Morning
5/28/2024
5:45:53-5:52:20
DONALD TRUMP: Nominate Trump for president of the United States. Whoa, that's nice. That's nice. Only if you want to win. Only if you want to win. Maybe you don't want to win. Maybe you don't want to win. If you want to lose, don't do that. Keep getting your three percent every four years.
KASIE HUNT: Wow, there is a lot going on there. Donald Trump getting heckled and booed at the Libertarian Party's convention on Saturday. His attempt to win over third-party voters clearly did not go as planned but it does show that his campaign is focused on critical third-party voters in November.
And there is, of course, one third-party candidate in particular that both Trump and President Biden have voiced concern about, and that is Robert Kennedy Jr. It's worth noting neither Trump nor RFK Jr. won the Libertarian Party nomination over the weekend.
Joining me now, Axios senior contributor, Margaret Talev. Margaret, good morning.
MARGARET TALEV (SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY, JOURNALISM AND CITIZENSHIP, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY): Good morning.
HUNT: Can we start with what we saw?
TALEV: Oh.
HUNT: I mean, Donald Trump is never on a stage where he gets booed like that. He clearly wasn't happy about it.
TALEV: Yeah. I don't think that was the reception he thought he was going to get there. But the reality is that he has made inroads into the Libertarian Party just as he has made some inroads into every facet of American politics. And I think he thought if he can go there and court Libertarian voters who are sort of leaning more Trump, even if he was not going to capture a nomination, it would be worth courting those voters.
I think another big part of what he was trying to do was just not cede that floor to RFK Jr., right, because this could be an important year where a third-party candidate could be a spoiler. RFK Jr. certainly has the potential to do that. And there was some thought that RFK Jr. would be very well-received there -- and he was certainly received differently than Donald Trump was.
But, yeah. I mean, to your point, you see -- we do a lot of focus grouping with battleground voters and swing voters and at this point in the election, RFK Jr. is sort of a fascination or a maybe to many of them who don't actually know pretty much anything about his policies, and his stances, and his background. The ones who lean more Democratic know the Kennedy name.
HUNT: Right.
TALEV: The ones who lean more to the right like the idea that there could be someone who is not Biden or Trump and all of those things make him potentially potent if he can get on ballots or get on a debate stage.
HUNT: Well, and that was kind of the interest, right? I mean, there was -- there were some conversations -- we had some reporting around RFK Jr. wanting to potentially be on the Libertarian ticket because they have ballot access --
TALEV: Yeah.
HUNT: -- across the country.
So, you mentioned how there are voters that are in either Trump or Biden -- I mean, this is the big question we've been trying to answer. With RFK on the ballot, which major party candidate suffers the most damage?
Here's what RFK Jr. had to say about Donald Trump. I thought it was -- it's an interesting line of attack -- watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With the lockdowns, the mask mandates, the travel restrictions, President Trump presided over the greatest restriction on individual liberties this country has ever known.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: I mean, that is -- it's obviously not a line of attack from President Biden. They attacked -- Democrats attacked Donald Trump for being irresponsible on how he fought the COVID pandemic.
TALEV: Absolutely.
HUNT: But this is not a record that Donald Trump likes to talk about either.
TALEV: No. I mean, you're absolutely right, and that's why I think the idea was sort of go block and tackle. Don't let RFK just make his case alone.
Interestingly, Donald Trump did not go out on that stage and pan RFK Jr. He ended up going out on the stage and panning the audience that was there to receive him.
HUNT: Uh-huh.
TALEV: But it's -- we, consistently from voters, hear -- we do not hear the idea from most voters that they're embracing him because of his anti-vax or critical of vaccines position, or critical of mandates. It's just the opposite. Voters at this stage -- a lot of those swing voters or persuadable voters are embracing this idea that RFK Jr. is sort of splitting the difference. That his politics are in the middle between Trump and Biden.
They really don't know anything about him or his running mate. It's just sort of memes of superficial impressions, but that could be very powerful if he could harness it.
HUNT: Yeah, it's really interesting and there is this big question about the debate stage, right, because right now, RFK Jr. is not supposed to be on the debate stage in June -- the first debate coming up June 27 here on CNN.
The two big questions for him are ballot access and polling thresholds. The polling -- I mean, he seems to be around 15 percent, which is where he would need to be in four major polls. Ballot access is a trickier thing.
What is your, sort of, expectation about whether we might see -- we haven't seen this since, you know, Ross Perot was on stage -- a third-party candidate on a debate state.
TALEV: Yeah. Many of the -- really, it's that crucial bloc of younger voters right now wasn't even alive the last time that a third-party candidate was sort of in this position. I think it's been 32 or 33 years, and we've seen it three times in history.
So, the odds are against him but he has moved very quickly to try to capture that ballot access in crucial states. So, I think it bears watching.
And don't forget, there's a couple of debates -- but also, there's just name recognition, voters' awareness. Again, if it comes down to anywhere as close a race as the last one was, that vote and maybe the Libertarians' vote -- some of the folks who were at this convention -- could be pivotal.
HUNT: One of the places where RFK Jr. claims to be on the ballot is Michigan. How dangerous is that for the Biden team considering that there are so many people there who are so unhappy with what's going on in terms of Gaza and Biden there?
TALEV: Yeah. Michigan, obviously, is this really crucial state both because of the Arab American vote, some of the younger vote that's sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinian civilians. It was thought at one point that women's rights and abortion rights could sort of, like, help propel in Michigan. But right now, the concern really is not just Arab American voters but younger voters and the fact that so many of the auto union workers that were once strongly affiliated with the Democratic Party could now be susceptible to at least a white male auto workers.
