Political analyst Jennifer Rubin predicted on Saturday that former President Donald Trump‘s “October surprise” may include former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
On Friday, Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer, dropped out of this year’s presidential race and endorsed Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, instead of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. Later that night, Kennedy Jr. joined Trump on stage at a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona. When introducing him, Trump called Kennedy Jr. “a man who has been an incredible champion for so many of these values that we all share.”
There is speculation among some that Trump could offer Kennedy Jr. a role in his administration in exchange for his support.
In an interview appearance on MSNBC‘s The Saturday Show with Jonathan Capehart, Rubin, a former conservative political commentator throughout most of her career and became a vocal critic of Trump in September 2020, spoke about Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement.
When asked by Capehart what kind of impact Kennedy Jr. has on the now two-way race, Rubin noted how he is a “perfect match” for Trump as she predicted that Trump’s running mate Ohio Senator JD Vance should “stick by the phone” because Trump may pull in Kennedy Jr. as “an October surprise.”
“The more people know about Bobby Kennedy, the more people who are saying they do not want to vote for him. I think he’s a perfect match for Donald Trump,” Rubin said before making a prediction. “If I were JD Vance, I would stick by the phone because he might be just the kind of guy that Trump would pull in as an October surprise. He is a nut, he is a conspiracy nut, he’s a racist, he has come up with all of these cockamamie theories of prosecutions. In that sense, he’s very much a Trump rather than a Kennedy.”
An “October surprise” refers to an event or late revelation that can change the trajectory of a presidential election as it can cause irreparable damage to one candidate’s chances and boost the other’s.
Newsweek has reached out to Vance’s campaign spokesperson via email for comment.
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Kennedy Jr., the son of 1968 Democratic presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of Democratic President John F. Kennedy, has gained attention in recent years for his skepticism toward the COVID-19 vaccinations. He also stirred controversy on several occasions while on the campaign trail. Earlier this month, Kennedy admitted to dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park in Manhattan 10 years earlier, saying that he and his friends who assisted thought the act was “amusing.”
In response to Rubin’s remarks, Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung condemned her in an emailed statement to Newsweek on Sunday.
“Jennifer Rubin is a washed-up loser who suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted her brain. The Never Trump movement is on its death bed, and they are doing everything they can to stay relevant, including making up outright lies and falsehoods to convince themselves of their delusional reality,” he said.
While it’s unclear how Kennedy Jr.’s decision to suspend his campaign will impact an already tight race, Rubin’s prediction comes after Vance has had a difficult time in the polls since Trump announced he was his running mate at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July.
His early polling issues seem to be changing in some polls, with the most recent Morning Consult research showing that voters are now only 2 points more likely to have unfavorable than favorable views of Vance.
The polling aggregation site FiveThirtyEight shows unfavorable opinions of Vance at 43.2 percent and favorable opinions of him at 33.2 percent. This is a net difference of 10 percentage points, the first time it has been in the double digits on FiveThirtyEight since Vance entered the race.
FiveThirtyEight’s results, the most recent of which were updated on Wednesday, are based on a projection of 95 percent of polls falling in that range.
Despite any concerns over Vance’s polling numbers, Trump’s campaign and even Trump himself have remained firm on their decision of Vance as their vice president pick.
Trump spokesperson, Cheung, denied reports that Trump was regretting picking Vance as his running mate in a statement to Newsweek last month.
“President Trump is thrilled with the choice he made with Senator Vance, and they are the perfect team to take back the White House. And any reporting to the contrary is nothing but ridiculous fake news from either nonexistent sources or individuals who have no idea what’s going on,” he said.