I agree. I see rfk hurting Biden more than trump. I figured trump would want rfk to stick around. If memory serves; Jill stein is the reason trump beat Hillary by basically siphoning just enough votes from Hillary for trump to overtake her
I know several people who voted for Trump who like Kennedy now. PDJT is speaking out against RFK Jr. because he must have seen polls showing RFK drawing votes from him.
If no candidate gets a majority of electoral votes the the House of Representatives picks the winner. Republican majority is razor thin there.
It looks this way to me: Trump will increasingly attack RFK with harsh rhetoric not to drive him from the race but in an attempt to create a sympathy vote for RFK.
That sympathy vote will not come from Trump voters but from voters who otherwise would support Biden. In other words, split the liberal vote.
This was done successfully in the 1970 New York Senate race where John Buckley (conservative third party candidate) built-up Republican Charles Goodell’s numbers by having Spiro Agnew strongly attack Goodell prompting sympathy votes at the expense of formidable Democrat Richard Ottinger.
Election night results: Buckley 38.5 %; Ottinger 36.8 %; and Goodell 24.3 %.
It did work and could again.