MSNBC political commentator David Jolly referred to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “MAGA crazy Republican” who will take votes away from Donald Trump.
Jolly joined host Jonathan Capehart for a panel discussion on Saturday evening where he explained why Trump started attacking RFK Jr. after he claimed a dead worm was inside his brain. Jolly said RFK is a “MAGA crazy Republican” who “speaks to the Aaron Rodgers Republican” and could potentially take some crucial hardline conservative votes away from Trump in important states.
CAPEHEART: What impact do you think this will have on his campaign? And two, should we take anything from the fact that Donald Trump went on video on on his janky social media platform and attacked RFK Jr. for a long time?
JOLLY: Yeah. Look, I still think RFK Jr. could take more from Republicans, and I think that’s why Donald Trump’s attacking them. He is a MAGA crazy Republican. He’s a vaccine denier. He denies science. He flip flops on the issue of abortion, and even his own VP candidate can’t keep up with where he is day to day on the most important issue going into November. Now he says he has a worm eating his brain. He is a perfect Republican today, and so who knows how he takes in specific states that really matter to a Biden victory in November. But I would tell you, this guy speaks to the Aaron Rodgers Republican, which ultimately could take from the MAGA crowd, I suspect, to see Joe Biden having a little bit of fun with RFK going into November.
The recent analysis by Jolly is the latest attempt from cable news pundits on both sides of the political aisle to try and accuse Kennedy of benefitting the other party. Fox News host Jesse Watters has previously predicted that RFK Jr. would be detrimental to Biden winning in November and has interviewed Kennedy on his show.
And Trump has himself sought to link RFK Jr. to Biden. On Thursday, the former president went after Kennedy in a video posted to Truth Social calling him a “Democrat plant” who has “been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden” get elected in November. Although Kennedy has a track record of supporting liberal policies, he has a recent following amongst anti-vaccine conservatives.
Polling on this issue is divided as one NBC News survey released back in April shows Kennedy cutting deeper into former Trump’s base support more than Biden’s in the upcoming election. However, a recent Emerson poll predicts that Kennedy’s third-party candidacy will help increase Trump’s margin of victory in key states against Biden.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
