Fresh off of drawing to a close his independent presidential run and joining forces with former President Donald Trump, Robert. F Kennedy Jr. spoke with TMZ on Tuesday regarding several recent events involving his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, and defended her against attacks from fellow actor Bradley Whitford, who chastised her online for standing by her husband as he endorsed the GOP candidate.
Kennedy’s presidential bid was beset with challenges from its inception, as he struggled to get his name on the ballot in all 50 states. Teams had been collecting the required signatures from the electorate nationwide but a lack of enthusiasm about his candidacy and the general thought that he’d play spoiler in November led to him suspending his campaign on Friday, just after the Democratic National convention closed. Kennedy was quick to endorse Trump and Whitford was quick to berate Hines for standing in silence as this all unfolded.
“Hey @CherylHines, way to stay silent while your lunatic husband throws his support behind the adjudicated rapist who brags about stripping women of their fundamental rights,” Whitford wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Speaking with TMZ by phone on Wednesday, Kennedy called this language from Whitford a “template for bullying” after noting that Hines is no supporter of Trump and his third presidential bid.
“I had to suppress some strong feelings about that, Kennedy said. “You know, it is a template for bullying. Here you have a guy, instead of challenging me, he’s attacking my wife. Who would do that? What kind of person, what kind of man would do that? Why wouldn’t he talk to me directly?”
Hines, he said, attended a meeting between Trump and Kennedy just after the former president was shot at a Pennsylvania rally in June. Kennedy’s wife, known to many for portraying a fictionalized version of herself for 12 seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm, had encouraged the meeting with Trump out of sympathy and not as a supporter.
“She urged me to do that, and she did that out of compassion. It was an emotional night for our country. It was an emotional night for everyone, and she made the right judgment,” he declared.
“She’s a lifelong Democrat, and the idea of me supporting Donald Trump as president is something that she would have never imagined, that she never wanted in her life. That is, I think, causing her a lot of discomfort,” he added. “And, you know, I’m very grateful to her.”
Kennedy was also asked to account for statements he had previously made about Trump before entering his good graces last week. The political legacy, whose father was slain Sen. Robert Kennedy, has said Trump is “a threat to democracy, a bully, that he appealed to bigotry, hatred and xenophobia and prejudice,”; Kennedy was also reminded that he’d said that Trump “was a terrible president.”
Facing his past remarks, Kennedy punted, telling TMZ that a 45-minute speech he’s previously given stated his evolution toward Trump’s ideas and policies.
“That evolution is not something that I can distill or summarize in a minute,” Kennedy added.
So far, Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump does not seem to be making a dent in polling numbers. According to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted from Aug. 22 to Aug. 26, Vice President Kamala Harris (46 percent) narrowly leads Trump (45 percent) among registered voters in a matchup that includes remaining third-party candidates.
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