Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), the Republican vice presidential nominee, said he’s “thrilled” to have the support of “Kennedy Democrats” after former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ended his campaign Friday and backed former President Trump’s White House bid.
Vance said he feels no hesitation in accepting Kennedy’s endorsement, despite some controversial statements Kennedy has made in the past, including his suggestions that vaccines could cause autism and refusal to “take sides” on what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.
“No, Kristen, I don’t,” Vance told NBC News’s Kristen Welker in an interview on “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday.
“Because we’re going to disagree on issues, right? There are things that Robert Kennedy has said that I disagree with. I’m sure there are things that … I’ve said … that he’s going to disagree with. But I think what his endorsement represents is that Donald J. Trump’s Republican Party is a big-tent party,” Vance said.
Vance said he was raised by two grandparents whom he described as “classic Blue Dog Democrats,” noting they believed in border security and opposed censorship.
“They believed in commonsense economic policies,” he continued. “They may have disagreed with Donald Trump about tax policy, but they believed in some fundamental American values.”
“And I think what RFK’s endorsement really shows is that the Kennedy Democrats are actually more at home in the Republican Party of Donald Trump,” Vance added.
Vance painted Vice President Harris’s Democratic Party today as different from his grandparents’ party, criticizing the party’s border policies, economic agenda and efforts to bring down prices.
“That is not JFK’s Democratic Party, it’s not RFK’s Democratic Party. We’re thrilled to have the Kennedy Democrats where they belong,” he continued.
Later in the interview, Vance said “of course I don’t agree” with Kennedy’s past comment that he “won’t take sides” on 9/11, but he said he needed to see more context to those remarks, and he stressed the importance of disagreeing on some issues.
The interview comes after Kennedy announced he would suspend his campaign and endorse Trump. Kennedy, who was running as an independent by the end of his campaign, began by challenging President Biden for the Democratic nomination.