Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is stepping up his campaign to challenge President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination, but congressional Democrats have already ignored him as a “peripheral candidate,” leading to a debate between the two. distance themselves from the idea that
Party officials have already thrown cold water on the possibility of holding a debate during the campaign, a tradition for campaigns with incumbent White House candidates.
Kennedy, the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, is a front-runner against Biden. But he’s trying to claim he can beat both Republican frontrunners, former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and has recently accused Kennedy of foreign policy on his Twitter space. Some even criticized Mr. Biden himself. “Very belligerent, belligerent and aggressive”
But several House Democrats interviewed by Fox News Digital have dismissed Mr. Kennedy’s challenge, with reactions ranging from ambivalent to outright impeachment.
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Democratic challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (left) wants to face President Joe Biden for the 2024 presidential nomination. (Getty Images/AP Newsroom)
Maryland Democratic Rep. Glen Ivey bluntly said “no” when asked if Kennedy’s scions should participate in a debate with the incumbent president. “You know, I love the Kennedy family. I was a huge fan of his father. I don’t think Joe Biden will be our nominee,” and he deserves to be. “
California Democrat Rep. Zoe Lofgren similarly disagreed with the idea, saying, “I don’t think Biden will necessarily debate a fringe candidate because he’s a fringe candidate. It shouldn’t,” he said.
Others were more cautious and hesitant, like Rep. Richard Neal and Seth Moulton, both from Kennedy’s home state of Massachusetts.
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Rep. Glenn Ivey told Fox News Digital that Biden doesn’t need to debate RFK Jr. (FOX News Digital/Elizabeth Elkind)
“Well, it’s up to Joe Biden. I mean, it seems to me that Kennedy is outnumbered here,” Neal told Fox News Digital. “And I realize that the Republican Party has already put out an indicator as to who is eligible for the debate, so I think it’s premature, but it’s up to the administration.”
“You’ve established a party process for this,” Moulton said. “But I think the hurdle is that everyone is considered a serious candidate with some traction before they’re even on the debate stage. .”
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Rep. Jeff Jackson of North Carolina said, “It’s pretty unusual for an incumbent to attend a preliminary debate, but I don’t know how far the tradition goes back.”
Rep. Richard Neal, who represents parts of the Kennedy family’s home state of Massachusetts, said the political scion was “on the edge” politically. (FOX News Digital/Elizabeth Elkind)
In fact, no sitting president has held a preliminary debate since 1948, when the first debate was broadcast to the public over the radio.
Rep. Jamal Bowman (D-Tex.) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) have made it clear that it is not up to members of Congress to break that tradition now.
“It’s up to the president if he wants to do it. He has such a good track record that whoever decides to debate him is going to be uphill,” Bowman said. “So that’s for the president to decide, I don’t know.”
“The campaign is going on, in my view,” Jackson Lee said.
Rep. Jamal Bowman predicted that anyone who challenges Biden in 2024 will be “uphill.” (FOX News Digital/Elizabeth Elkind)
“Each campaign will decide what is best for the American people, and I will follow the decisions that the campaign makes. I want to be ‘American people,’ added Jackson Lee.
Earlier this year, President Kennedy said it was “disappointing” that the National Party would not hold a preliminary debate. But recent Fox News polls show Biden holds a commanding lead over Kennedy, whose vaccine skepticism is alienating a sizeable number of Democratic voters.
A poll in late May showed Mr. Biden backing 62% of left-wing primary voters, with Mr. Kennedy at 16% and author Marianne Williamson in a distant third at 8%. ing.
