Campaign

Former RFK Jr. running mate: Democrats have ‘lost their soul’

Nicole Shanahan speaks during a campaign event.
Josh Edelson, AFP
Independent vice presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan speaks during a campaign event at the Henry J. Kaiser Event Center in Oakland, Calif., March 26, 2024.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ex-running mate, Nicole Shanahan, criticized Democratic attacks against Kennedy, saying members of the party have “lost their soul” during a Fox News interview Tuesday.

“They’ve lost their soul. They’ve lost their direction,” Shanahan said on Jesse Watters’s prime-time Fox News show.

“And, you know, if you’re going to pick a target, you got to pick it and little bit better. Robert F. Kennedy is one of the kindest human beings I’ve had the pleasure to get to know,” she continued.

Shanahan added that Kennedy “is somebody who’s been attacked over years now, from all different angles,” and that he told her since she became part of his campaign that “every attack is a signal from God. Show up with kindness.”

Kennedy announced last week he was suspending his presidential campaign and backing former President Trump. He joined Trump at a rally Friday in Arizona after he said he was suspending his campaign.

“Tonight I’m very pleased to welcome a man who has been an incredible champion for so many of these values that we all share, and we’ve shared them for a long time,” Trump said when introducing Kennedy.

Kennedy, who has long peddled debunked anti-vaccine conspiracies, has talked about “making America healthy again” as part of the Trump campaign. Watters asked Shanahan what that means.

“Making America healthy again is admitting the fact that we have the highest chronic health disease rate of any modern nation. We spent $4.6 trillion on health care. It doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere. So it’s really asking the hard questions of, why is our health care system not delivering healthy people?” she said.

“We know that there is a huge amount of collusion and a huge amount of corruption in our agencies. We’re going to decouple that. We’re going to decouple Big Pharma from our government agencies that are responsible for delivering healthy results to people.”

Multiple members of Kennedy’s family went after him following his endorsement of Trump, including five of his siblings.

“We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future,” Kerry Kennedy wrote in a statement, alongside four more of her brother’s siblings. “We believe in Harris and Walz. Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear.”

“It is a sad ending to a sad story,” they added.

Kennedy said in an interview with TMZ this week said his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, was also uncomfortable with his endorsement of Trump.

Tags 2024 election 2024 presidential election Donald Trump Jesse Watters Kerry Kennedy Nicole Shanahan RFK Jr. campaign Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump campaign

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