DeSantis has 'hopelessly lost the plot' by promoting RFK Jr.: conservative

27 July 2023

Like other MAGA Republicans — including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been promoting Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. It isn't hard to understand DeSantis' motivations: RFK, Jr. is a conspiracy theorist known for his anti-vax views, and some Republicans equate promoting him with "owning the liberals."

But in an article published by the conservative National Review on July 27, journalist Jeffrey Blehar stresses that embracing Kennedy is not a wise move on DeSantis' part.

DeSantis has said that if he were president, he would consider picking RFK Jr. for a position with either the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"DeSantis has either hopelessly lost the plot in his campaign, or he's myopically focused on appeasing the 'New Right' to the exclusion of all else," Blehar argues. "This strategy will persuade many of his previous supporters, even the fervent ones, to desist from their belief that he's the best possible alternative to Donald Trump. And so, the strategy will neither win him the primary nor the general election."

Blehar notes some of the conspiracy theories RFK, Jr. has pushed — for example, claiming that vaccines cause autism and that Sirhan Sirhan may not have been the real assassin of his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. (D-Massachusetts) on June 5, 1968.

"Would you appoint this man to either head or oversee the Food and Drug Administration or the Centers for Disease Control?" Blehar writes. "Would you even consider it a remotely plausible pander?"

The National Review's full article continues at this link.

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