Why there’s 'potential silver lining' for Biden as RFK Jr’s campaign 'intensifies': columnist

Robert F Kennedy Jr. — who's running for president as an Independent against President Joe Biden and ex-President Donald Trump — announced his running mate pick back in March.

Nicole Shanahan, The Hill reported, "adds an element of age and gender diversity to the ticket. At 38, she is more than three decades younger than the 70-year-old Kennedy." The news outlet also noted, "A female running mate also helps offset the ticket in an election where the Democratic, Republican and Independent front-runners are all older white men."

However, months later, Shanahan has proven to engage in a "fantastical range of paranoid thinking about the world" — potentially even more than Kennedy, according to MSNBC's Zeeshan Aleem.

READ MORE: 'You’re trying to get me to hate on President Trump': RFK Jr. spars with MSNBC host

Aleem writes in a Monday op-ed published by MSNBC that the California-based entrepreneur "has proposed that she and Kennedy are not just fighting against bad policies, but against 'demonic' forces — a disconcerting phenomenon, for sure."

The MSNBC Daily writer emphasizes, "But there is a potential silver lining: The claims are also more likely to be bought by voters who might otherwise vote for former President Donald Trump."

If Shanahan continues down this path, Aleem adds, "it could be good news for Biden," because "believers in theories of a demonic cabal in the government skew to the right, and it’s possible that voters who otherwise might be part of Trump’s base defect to Kennedy."

The columnist emphasizes, "Yes, we live in a very politically polarized nation, but it’s still highly unusual to hear political leaders refer to their opponents as literally diabolical."

READ MORE: 'Wasted protest vote': Trump unleashes on RFK Jr. after polls suggest appeal to GOP voters

Aleem's full op-ed is available at this link.