Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic member of Congress from Hawaii, are backing former President Donald Trump.
Stephanie MurrayArizona Republic
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. disclosed he is under investigation for “collecting a whale specimen 20 years ago” during a talk in Glendale, and suggested the probe is politically motivated because it came after he endorsed former President Donald Trump.
“Right after I endorsed President Trump, I received a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Institute saying they were investigating me for collecting a whale specimen 20 years ago,” Kennedy told a crowd at Arizona Christian University. “It’s 15 years past the statute of limitations.”
Kennedy was in Arizona on Saturday night to campaign for Trump, weeks after he ended his own independent presidential bid to support the GOP nominee.
The former White House hopeful appeared at Arizona Christian University with Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic member of Congress from Hawaii. Gabbard ran for president as a Democrat four years ago, but this time is supporting Trump, a Republican.
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Kennedy brushed off questions about the investigation, although he brought it up unprompted during his time onstage. The probe could be tied to a Kennedy story that recently went viral online. Kennedy’s daughter Kick told Town & Country in 2012 that her father once cut the head off a dead whale that had washed ashore in Massachusetts, tied it to the roof of the family’s minivan and drove it five hours to New York.The story resurfaced in news accounts a couple of weeks ago.
“I’m not gonna talk about that. I will talk about serious policy issues,” Kennedy said. “The mainstream media doesn’t want to talk about that. They want to talk about gossipy nonsense.”
Kennedy said he replied to the probe by writing a letter accusing the fisheries agency of being complicit in the killing of endangered right whales because it allows offshore wind farms to operate on the East Coast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration did not respond Saturday to The Arizona Republic's request for comment.
The conversation between Kennedy and Gabbard was moderated by Jessica Reed Kraus, a Substack writer who writes about the presidential race on her @houseinhabit social media accounts. She referred to the trio onstage as “three of your favorite disillusioned Democrats.”All three discussed the paths they took from being Democrats to eventually supporting Trump.
The event was billed as “Team Trump’s Reclaim America Tour.” Some 600 people attended the event, and others were turned away because they couldn’t fit inside the event space.
Until last month, Kennedy was an independent candidate for president. He went as far as to gather and submit signatures to get his name on the ballot in Arizona, among other states. He mentioned several times that he faced legal challenges to get on the ballot during his candidacy.
Now, he is fighting to get off the ballot in some states because he ended his campaign so close to the November election.
Kennedy successfully withdrew his name from the Arizona ballot last month after his campaign acknowledged that it could act as a spoiler by taking votes from Trump and tipping the balance toward Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
“The reason I terminated my campaign is because it became clear to me my remaining in this campaign was going to bring to power a candidate who I believe will be easily manipulated by the deep state, by the national security state, by the intelligence agencies, to keep us in a state of continual war and seal the destruction of the United States of America,” Kennedy said.
Throughout the evening, Kennedy and Gabbard painted a dark picture of the United States and the world at large, pitching Trump as the candidate who will bring an end to wars abroad and that an endorsem*nt by former GOP Vice President Dick Cheney is an indicator that a Harris presidency would lead to “continual war.” They also suggested that Trump and Kennedy are being targeted by the “systematic weaponization of government.”
“We the people are far more powerful than them, which is why they are trying to destroy us, but we the people will not let them do that,” Gabbard said.
Kennedy has been to Arizona twice in the past month, traveling to Phoenix in late August to announce that he would suspend his campaign. He said he will be back in the state for 10 days leading up to the November election, he told reporters.
Despite their differences, Trump had high praise for Kennedy, the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., at a recent rally.
“I've known him a long time. We've been a little bit on the opposite side of the equation, but I will say this, he is a brilliant ― I still think of him as young. He's not that young. I always call him young, but he's not that young. But he is a phenomenal person, a phenomenal man who loves the people of this country as much as anybody can love the people of this country,” Trump said.
Kennedy and Gabbard were introduced by Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who lost the GOP Senate primary to Republican nominee Kari Lake earlier this year. Lamb pointed out he was born in Hawaii, the state Gabbard represented in Congress, and praised Kennedy’s controversial views on vaccines.
“I love his stance as it relates to COVID and the vaccine,” Lamb said. “He brings such a powerful voice.”
