Democrat Pollster Warns RFK's Support Will Crumble When They 'Learn His Real Views'

Townhall ^ | 05/11/2024 | Sarah Arnold

[SeekAndFind]

A top Democrat pollster is warning that 2024 Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s support among Republicans will crumble when they begin to see through his cracks.

Kennedy has seen some support from the Republican Party primarily due to his right-leaning views such as being pro-parental rights and an anti-vaxxer.

However, Mark Penn is warning to look beyond the surface of the Independent candidate.

“I think that it will drop in half if Republicans learn the views, right now they don’t know these things,” Penn told Fox News’s Sean Hannity.

“And there’s a group of Republicans that don’t like anybody and he’s now the alternative to the alternative,” he added. “So he’s got some votes, but I agree with you, he would lose a lot of Republican votes if this screen that you’re putting up there really got out and got broadcast.”

According to recent polls, RFK Jr. trails a large margin behind President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. 

In a USA Today/Suffolk University survey, Trump secured 37.1 percent support, Biden 36.7 percent, and Kennedy with just eight percent of support. 

A Redfield & Wilton poll found that Kennedy only holds seven percent of the vote, while Trump holds 43 percent and Biden 41 percent. 

During the interview, Hannity listed some of Kennedy’s most far-left views including his support for eliminating fracking and endorsing Hillary Clinton. 

Supports push to clean energy and zero emissions, supports eliminating fracking, endorsed Bernie’s climate plan, supports divesting from fossil fuels, supports carbon tax, supports Paris Climate Accords, called the NRA a ‘terror group,’ supports affirmative action, supports reparations, supports amnesty for non-violent drug offenders, wants to ‘transform the police,’ called Louis Farrakhan a ‘truly great partner,’ supports raising minimum wage to $15/hour, supports labor unions, supports raising taxes, endorsed Al Gore in 2000, endorsed John Kerry in 2004, claimed 2004 election was stolen, donated to Obama, endorsed Hillary Clinton for Senate in 2000, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2007, repeatedly praised Bernie Sanders, a ‘sin’ for people to not address global warming, blamed America for causing 9/11, supports ESG,” and “called Fidel Castro ‘incredibly charming.’ Via the Daily Wire. 

[Pearls Before Swine]

what about the worm?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

So Rs will move to Trump and Kennedy will suck more votes from Biden.

[BEJ]

There has been a pop corn lodged in Biden’s brain for years and when the public learns his real views they will be shocked ... or maybe not.

[Republican Wildcat]

Well, there are people supposedly on the “right” that have been promoting RFK Jr. as credible in many conservative media - including right here on this forum - in what can only be an effort to damage Trump, because otherwise it does not make any sense to promote a far-left socialist / totalitarian as someone to support and vote for on the right. His real record:

RFK, Jr.: Climate Skeptics ‘Should Be at the Hague with All the Other War Criminals’ https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3206882/posts

RFK, Jr. wants me jailed … as a war criminal https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3211190/posts

RFK Jr.: Hog farmers bigger threat than Osama https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2178592/posts

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wants To Jail His Political Opponents https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3206573/posts

Lessons in civility from RFK, Jr. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3509601/posts

Robert Kennedy Jr. Blames Reagan For 9/11 [for rolling back CAFE standards in 1986] https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1855875/posts

RFK Jr. spreads blame for environmental woes in New Bedford speech https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1913559/posts

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Blames Fairness Doctrine Abolishment for Conservatism Popularity https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2479527/posts

RFK, Jr: ‘We have so much to learn from Cuba’ https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3243628/posts

RFK Endorses AOC’s Green New Deal, Calls for Climate Taxation https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4187998/posts

Watch RFK, Jr. lose it at climate change march when confronted about his hypocrisy https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3206578/posts

Andrea Mitchell Applauds RFK Jr.’s ‘Impassioned Plea’ for Obama to Stop Keystone Pipeline by Fiat https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3120692/posts

RFK Jr. Slams “Right-Wing Control of American Media” https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2967445/posts

RFK Jr: Right-Wing Controls American Media, Fox News Has Divided US to a Point not Seen Since Civil War https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2967311/posts

RFK jr: Sen. Inhofe is a “Call Girl” for Big Oil (But it’s OK to say it, he’s a Democrat after all) https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2855976/posts

Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s ‘Green’ Company Scored $1.4 Billion Taxpayer Bailout https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2808401/posts

RFK Jr. Claims Air America Was More Popular Than Conservative Radio https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2740193/posts

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Endorses Charlie Crist, Attacks Tea Party (Video) https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2606809/posts

RFK, Jr. 15 months ago: Global warming means no snow or cold in DC https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2446226/posts

Robert Kennedy Jr.: right-wing hosts spread hate https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271218/posts

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: Innocent ACORN Defrauded by ACORN Workers https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109548/posts

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: ‘There Is No Liberal Media’(video barf!) https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2021728/posts

Kennedy Calls Skeptical Politicians ‘Traitors’ and ‘Corporate Toadies’ https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1864440/posts

RFK Jr. Says AGW Skeptics Should Be Silenced https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1864945/posts

Video: Stossel Takes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. On For Traitor Remark https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1864510/posts

RFK Jr. Calls Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck Lying ‘Flat Earthers’ https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1863207/posts

RFK (Robberbaron F. Kennedy) Jr. vs. Mike Gallagher on Energy Independence https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033812/posts

The Incredible Shrinking Credibility of RFK, Jr. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1644744/posts

RFK Jr.: Bush, Barbour to Blame for Katrina https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1473838/posts

RFK Jr: You know, my uncle was also shot amid a climate of right-wing hate https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2655920/posts

Flashback - Palin’s Big Oil infatuation [End of snow forever in DC] https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3387273/posts

RFK Jr says Donald Trump has ‘discredited the American experiment’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7903551/Robert-Kennedy-Jr-says-Donald-Trump-discredited-American-experiment.html

RFK Jr praised China’s ‘organ harvesting’ threats to meet climate goals https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4236805/posts

[nickcarraway]

This list doesn’t even include the fact that he said “climate deniers” should be jailed. He’s a full-on Gingrich.

[Ikeon]

This is akin to me saying " bidens support will crumble if they knew how senile he really was". How many libs are leapng off buildings After hearing that? * crickets *

you can stop posting liberal opinions now,

That'd be great.

[Sooth2222]

"Democrat Pollster Warns RFK's Support Will Crumble When They 'Learn His Real Views'

Doubt it. He's a pollster by trade, and doesn't understand that Democrat voters don't vote for Democrats because of their views. (Or even care about their views.)

[Sooth2222]

Ditto Republicans with TDS. They only care that a candidate is NOT Donald Trump.

[chopperk]

Maybe RFK will replace Biden at the convention. RFK is just holding out for more money from the DNC.

[nathanbedford]

Kennedy's only hope in the election is to face either Trump or Biden one-on-one. He cannot win as a third-party candidate so he has produced a poll of 25,000 respondents that allegedly shows him beating Biden handily one-on-one and Trump narrowly.

Kennedy can get his one-on-one race only if one of the two main party candidates drops out. He probably considered Trump to be a likely dropout falling victim to lawfare but that eventuality seems increasingly less likely in view of the events delaying the federal and state cases. Biden, on the other hand, is possibly to be a victim of his own party establishment as his polls reveal his chances to be increasingly dismal. Therefore, Kennedy must assume that his one-on-one, if he is to get the chance, will come against Trump if it comes at all.

So what would Kennedy's strategy against Trump be? Just as the MAGA base is quite unlikely to dessert Trump, so too is it unlikely that Trump haters, conditioned now for nearly a decade by leftist media to despise and fear Trump, are unlikely to desert any reasonably acceptable candidate on the left who opposes Trump. Thus the race, beyond get out the vote drives to respective bases, will boil down to never-Trump Republicans, independents, and suburban women who want everybody to play nice and who recoil from Trump's alleged grotesqueries.

In this field, Kennedy is running on the side of a slightly larger party in a world in which independents are bigger than either party. His task then is to confine Republican voters to Trump's MAGA base. His task is to provide all other Republicans with a reasonable, that is sensible, alternative to Trump's conservative policies. In other words, wherever Kennedy can run to the right of Trump he should do so providing it does not antagonize his own Democrat base, independents and never- Trump Republicans.

The pollsters tell us that the number one issue today is the open border and Kennedy has declared recently on the side of angels calling for closing the border. Thus, he put himself in alignment with about 68% of the voters and provides sensitive and race phobic voters with a reasonable alternative without all that unseemly racism that the left has attached to Trump. Hence, Kennedy is in a position to run to the right of Trump quite safely on this issue.

Similarly, Kennedy is running to the right on the issue of voter ID, calling for the issuance of photo identification. He does not offend the base of the Democrat party, again, he can run to the right and even get to Trump's right without undermining his own party's support because the Democrat party grassroots are themselves not committed to voter fraud, that feature comes from their elites and professionals.

Kennedy has called for cutting the military budget in half, using the saved monies to balance the budget, increase healthcare subsidies keep taxes at current levels and, magically, balance the budget. In this he runs to Trump's right, who will want to increase military spending, and he panders to Trump supporters who want an end to foreign adventures, a position that Kennedy also promotes with the additional argument that foreign adventures will be curtailed because he will have reduced the military budget. Running to Trump's right, he still offers a plausible scenario for fiscal and foreign policy sanity.

There are other issues which should be analyzed but the thrust of his campaign emerges. It is also important to emphasize that Kennedy is artful in appearing to be reasonable and, when pushed, he is quite facile in diverting attention away from the downside of any issue he espouses by averting to his personal or family history. These discourses are well delivered and hold the audience.. He anticipates many of the potential charges against himself and blunts their force by frank admissions of his own drug and alcohol abuse etc. His story of redemption is credible and actually moving, especially to Moonbeam independents.

Kennedy is not to be dismissed, he is a very dangerous candidate who carries more than the aura of his name.

.

[mewzilla]

If there were enough of those to matter, Deep State wouldn't have to steal elections would it...

As for why Junior is really running, here's a clue...

50,000 Votes Turned at the Flip of a Switch: Forensic Expert Claims Massive Fraud in Pennsylvania in 2020 Election

And a preview of coming attractions from 2006...

Update: Is ‘vote flipping’ an e-voting problem or user error?

[maro]

Do you mean Corn Pop? Justice for Corn Pop!

[bray]

NeverTrumpers will vote for Biden out of principle.

[Organic Panic]

Uh oh... RFK will peel off Biden supporters.

[jmacusa]

They didn’t shoot enough Kennedys.