OPINION: Latest endorsements of Trump are a cause for alarm
Photo via: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Opinion Editor Danny Murnin writes that Donald Trump’s parroting of recent endorsements from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard is disqualifying.
It goes without saying that the last few months have been one of the most chaotic periods in American political history. At the end of May, former President Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies related to hush money payments he made to a porn actress he had an affair with. On July 13, Trump was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and named Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate. Trump accepted the Republican nomination just days later.
Prior to the attempted assassination, President Joe Biden had a disastrous, painful performance in a debate against Trump; that performance led to his exit from the race after three weeks of bitter infighting within the Democratic Party. This thrusted Vice President Kamala Harris into an uncharted position as the Democratic Party’s new nominee. Harris has capitalized on the newfound enthusiasm by raising record-breaking sums of money and naming Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
The twists don’t end there. A major factor in the race has been the impact of third-party candidates. Cornel West, a famed philosopher and political activist, is running to the left of Harris under the banner of the “Justice for All Party.” Perennial grifter Jill Stein, Russia’s favorite spoiler candidate, is also running far to the left of Harris as the Green Party nominee. The other major third-party candidate was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had been polling well ahead of Stein or West. On Aug. 23, Kennedy announced that he would be removing his name from the ballot in 10 competitive states, essentially dropping out of the race. At the same time, he endorsed Trump.
I strongly dislike Donald Trump and disagree with virtually everything he stands for, but if I had to choose between voting for Trump or Kennedy, I would choose Trump in a heartbeat. I am extremely alarmed if not outright frightened about the significance of Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump. Yes, Kennedy drew more voters from Trump than Harris which will boost Trump’s chances. However, what is most concerning to me is the possibility that Trump, who I perceive to be the narrow frontrunner in the race, might have promised Kennedy a prominent spot in his administration in return for an endorsement. Trump said before the endorsement that he would be open to giving Kennedy a spot in his administration These comments came at the same time that Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, confirmed they had been in contact with the Trump campaign. Kennedy even said after his exit from the race that Trump had asked him to join his new administration if the former president wins.
If Kennedy were to join a second Trump administration, it would likely be in a health-related role, perhaps as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). This prospect should terrify any sane person.
This is mainly because of Kennedy’s long-standing activism against vaccines, which is based entirely on outrageous lies. Kennedy has been a leading proponent of the theory that vaccines cause autism. This theory has been debunked over and over again, yet he continues to preach it. Five years ago, well before he became a presidential candidate, several close family members publicly denounced him for his dangerous views on vaccines. It also shouldn’t come as any surprise that he is a COVID-19 conspiracy theorist as well. In early 2022, he made headlines for an insane statement about unvaccinated Americans, saying they were worse off than Anne Frank was while hiding from the Nazis in the 1940s. More recently, he has entertained a bigoted, deeply offensive notion (with no backing evidence whatsoever) that COVID-19 was genetically engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
This is not someone who belongs anywhere near an upper-level position in our government, and the strong possibility that he would hold a prominent health role in a second Trump administration is alone a good enough reason to not vote for Trump. Unfortunately, Trump seems to have set no limit on how many crazy people he lets in his inner circle.
On Aug. 26, Trump was endorsed by Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii. Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022 but had strained relationships within the party well before that. Her foreign policy views are heavily isolationist and certainly are not in the best interest of the United States. She has been a mouthpiece for Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout the ongoing war in Ukraine, continuously echoing the baseless narratives Putin has espoused to justify his barbaric, illegal invasion of a sovereign country. As if that isn’t concerning enough, she is also an apologist for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a war criminal who has used chemical weapons to brutally murder his own citizens. Apparently, she has been advising Trump on foreign policy for months and has expressed interest in serving in his cabinet in a national security role.
While Kennedy and Gabbard are both full of nonsense, they unfortunately are also very serious people who seek to implement their dangerous objectives rather than just act as grifters. Even for those who view Trump favorably, the damage he could do to this country by including these two individuals in his administration is a frightening prospect and should be given due consideration before casting a ballot for him.
Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.
