Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), in a letter to vice-presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan, urges her to abandon the ticket with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., citing concerns that the campaign could lead to an election victory for Donald Briscola .
RFK announced his choice of Shanahan last month as he moves forward with an independent bid for the White House.
According to Kennedy’s vice president, CBS News obtained a letter addressed to her from Khanna warning that “supporting Kennedy could aid Trump’s return to the White House and have negative environmental consequences.”
“Even Trump himself and other members of his team have admitted that an RFK Jr. ticket will help his reelection,” Khanna writes.
The letter appears to be a way to stifle Kennedy’s important campaign. Democrats and his own family have repeatedly pressured him to abandon office, citing the same concerns as Khanna. But to no avail.
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Nicole Shanahan responds
The fact that Khanna ran to CBS News to spread the word is quite remarkable. She wrote the letter but did not send it to RFK’s vice president. And yet, anyway.
“He made his proposal to her in a letter he shared with CBS News, even though he hadn’t yet sent it to Shanahan,” the outlet reveals.
This is confusing, since he knows full well that the outlet would in turn contact Shanahan for comment. And they did it. They dutifully served as Democratic lawmakers’ personal couriers.
And she, in turn, criticized him on social media.
The far-left candidate called Khanna out and said he had initially encouraged her to run but had clearly been strong in trying to convince her to drop out.
“In my conversation with Ro, he congratulated me on the position and encouraged me to run, stating that every American has the right to run for office in this country,” he writes. “He said that we live in a democracy and that it was wrong for someone to threaten me to run.”
“Clearly, Ro changed his position based on pressure from the party,” Shanahan adds. “I hope he understands how undemocratic it is to ask someone to withdraw from a race that gives the American public the power to make their own decisions.”
He went on to express his disappointment with Khanna’s actions and added that he could have simply called her to discuss.
RELATED: RFK’s independent bid is hurting Biden in polls: report
RFK intervenes
Robert F Kennedy Jr. praised Nicole Shanahan for her courage in standing firm against pressure from Democrats to drop out.
He also suggested that the party that claims to be the great defender of democracy is literally trying to belittle democracy.
“I’ve always admired Ro Khanna,” he wrote on X. “His flip flop here is disappointing. The party has the power to force men of character to falter.”
This is not the first time Kennedy has implied that the Democratic Party poses a greater threat to democracy than Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“I can argue that President Biden poses a much worse threat to democracy,” he told CNN in a recent interview.
NEW: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tells CNN that Joe Biden is a bigger threat to democracy than Donald Trump.
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CNN: “Do you really believe that when people talk about the threat to democracy posed by Trump, that they really think it’s as bad as Biden’s?”
RFK: “I mean,… pic.twitter.com/jNzE0ynugZ
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 2, 2024
Biden has tried to distance himself from RFK. The two are both far-left Democrats in every way. But Kennedy offers a legitimate option for those party voters dismayed by Biden’s presidency.
Polls subsequently show that the Kennedy name hurts Biden. Democratic voters are turned away by him running as an independent.
That’s why they want him out so badly.
And if they can’t oust Kennedy, it looks like they’ll at least try to torpedo his campaign by pressuring Nicole Shanahan to leave.
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