The 29 strangest lines from RFK Jr.'s CNN interview
Well, here we go.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now has a running mate. He says he qualified for the ballot in the potential swing state of North Carolina on Monday. And, in most national polls, he is taking around 10% of the general election vote.
And yet, I haven’t really spent a ton of time listening to him speak — or be interviewed — in the campaign to date. Which is why I was really happy that CNN’s Erin Burnett interviewed him on Monday night.
I went through the transcript of the interview line by line — and pulled out what you need to see.
This work is important. But, it takes time and energy. So, it’s behind the pay wall. If you are not a paid subscriber just yet, I hope you consider becoming one today!
“Right now, I’m pulling pretty much equally, probably a little more from President Trump.”
It’s hard to say if this is true or not. Ipsos recently did a breakdown of RFK Jr. voters that included this chart that suggests his people are somewhere between Biden and Trump ideologically.
And away we go!
“But do you want kind of a glib answer or a thoughtful answer?”
Oooooh. Tough choice for me, if I am being honest.
“And I don't think either of them are actually going to destroy democracy. There's -- we have institutions in this country that are pretty enduring.”
I actually agree with this. While I think Donald Trump has a fundamentally different understanding of democracy (and the job of a president) than the people who have held the office before, I don’t believe he could (even if he really wanted to) destroy the institutions that make America, well, America.
“But on the issues where they actually depart from each other, it's a very narrow band of issues.”
I would argue that Biden and Trump differ on the nature and breadth of democracy, which is not a “narrow” issue at all.
“And it's the culture war issues, like abortion, guns, the border. And they're all important issues, but they're not existential issues.”
Uh, abortion is not an “existential” issue? I think proponents — and opponents — of it would argue that it very much is.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to So What to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.