Like the rest of the ConWeb, Newsmax heavily championed Robert Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign when he was running as a Democrat in the hope he might serve as a spoiler for President Biden’s re-election campaign, only to lose interest when he decided to switch to running as an independent candidate, which would likely take votes away from Donald Trump. But compared with the other outlets, Newsmax has continued to report fairly consistently on Kennedy from both sides (though one might suspect a particular day’s coverage depends on whether Newsmax feels he hurts Biden or Trump more). Here is some of Newsmax’s coverage of Kennedy since late last year that is supportive of teh candidate:
- Super PAC Spending $10M to Get RFK Jr. on Ballots
- Biden Admin Denies RFK Jr. Secret Service for 3rd Time
- RFK Jr. to Newsmax: Courting Boomers Priority of My Campaign
- RFK Jr. Weighs Libertarian Run for President
- Secret Service Ignored RFK Jr. Security Request
- RFK Jr. Woos NFL QB Rodgers, Jesse Ventura As Running Mate
- RFK Jr. to Pick Tech Entrepreneur Shanahan as VP
- Newsmax Confirms RFK Jr. to Name Shanahan Running Mate
- Tulsi Gabbard Rejected RFK Jr. VP Offer
- RFK Jr.: Won’t Run as Libertarian
Other articles highlighted some of Kennedy’s foibles:
- RFK Jr.: Kennedy Admin Had ‘Good Reason’ to Wiretap MLK
- RFK Jr. Slammed After PAC’s $7M Super Bowl Ad
- RFK Jr. Campaign Disavows Email Calling Jan. 6 Defendants ‘Activists’
- RFK Jr. Wants to Hear ‘Every Side’ on Jan. 6 Prisoners (wire article)
- Adam Kinzinger: RFK Jr. Campaign ‘Hijacked by MAGA’
Newsmax also served up articles that sort of played it down the middle while admitting his appeal to Trump voters. A Dec. 25 wire article noted that Kennedy was drawing interest from voters who had previously voted for Trump and for Biden. A Jan. 31 article by Sandy Fitzgerald noted that Kennedy was drawing more donors of Trump than for Biden:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign, after announcing his independent run in early October, has brought in more than $7 million through December, with more money coming from donors who have given in the past to former President Donald Trump than to President Joe Biden.
According to a Politico analysis of filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission late Tuesday, $5 million came from itemized donations of more than $200, with about $224,000 of the donors who gave money to Trump’s 2020 campaign.In comparison, $105,000 came from donors to Biden’s 2020 campaign against Trump.
In comparison, $105,000 came from donors to Biden’s 2020 campaign against Trump.
The figures show a trend that was happening while Kennedy was still in the Democratic primary and suggest that he could gain interest from Trump supporters if he and Trump face Biden in November’s general election.
Newsmax also ran a couple of articles featuring Trump attacking Kennedy. Michael Katz detailed one rant in a March 27 article:
Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is great for the MAGA movement because he is more liberal than President Joe Biden, and that taking votes away from Biden in November’s election “would be a great service to America.”
Trump’s post on Truth Social came a day after Kennedy named tech attorney and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as his running mate.
“RFK Jr. is the most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far,” Trump wrote. “He’s a big fan of the Green New Scam, and other economy killing disasters. I guess this would mean he is going to be taking votes from Crooked Joe Biden, which would be a great service to America. His running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is even more ‘Liberal’ than him if that’s possible.”
Eric Mack pushed the same narrative in an April 27 article:
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is not only removing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from nascent chatter of being a potential running mate, he is calling him “a WASTED PROTEST VOTE” that is even more “Radical Left” than President Joe Biden and his “Green New Scammers.”
“RFK Jr. is a Democrat ‘Plant,’ a Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the History of the United States, get Re-Elected,” Trump wrote in the first of three continuous posts Friday night on Truth Social.
“A Vote for Junior’ would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE, that could swing either way, but would only swing against the Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him.”
Despite past praise of Kennedy for his independent positions and breaking from Democrats and Biden, Trump exposed the “Radical Left” positions his third-party opponent espouses.
In between, an April 18 wire article from the Associated Press noted that “President Joe Biden will accept endorsements from at least 15 members of the Kennedy political family during a campaign stop in Philadelphia on Thursday as he aims to undermine former President Donald Trump and marginalize the candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” Someone made a curious edit later in the article, however. An article that reads “the prominent Democratic family” in the original was changed to “Democrat family.” Changing “Democratic” to “Democrat” is something right-wingers like Newsmax do in an attempt to belittle the party’s supporters by deliberately getting the name wrong.