Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign has fired staffer Rita Palma, after she told GOP voters that her “number one priority” is stopping Joe Biden from winning the election—not by actually getting Kennedy 270 Electoral College votes, but by using him to play spoiler and reelect Donald Trump. After video of Palma’s remarks surfaced online this week, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, Kennedy’s campaign manager and daughter-in-law, wrote: “We’re looking into whether any misrepresentations were made. Our campaign champions freedom of speech for all our supporters, volunteers, contractors, and staff, as long as they do not claim to speak on our behalf.” Two days later, she said: “We terminated her contract for misrepresentation immediately upon seeing the longer video in which she gave an inaccurate job title and described a conversation that did not happen.”
In footage of the meeting seen by CNN, Palma declared: “The only way that Trump can even, remote possibility of taking New York is if Bobby is on the ballot. If it’s Trump vs. Biden, Biden wins. Biden wins six days, seven days a week. With Bobby in the mix, anything can happen. The only way for him, for Bobby, to shake it up and to get rid of Biden is if he’s on the ballot in every state, including New York.” While Democrats have long warned that Kennedy’s candidacy poses a grave threat to Biden, Palma spelling it out and flatly announcing that the goal is to help Trump win a second term was obviously not a good look for the Kennedy campaign. (Incidentally, she also attended the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the January 6 insurrection, claimed January 6 “was not a riot” but “99.9 [percent] peaceful,” and repeatedly called Trump her “favorite president” in posts online.)
So, for optics purposes, she had to go.* Yet, as my colleague Eric Lutz noted Wednesday, Palma is not the only Trump supporter in the Kennedy world. Per The Wall Street Journal, Timothy Mellon is the single largest donor to not just RFK Jr.’s PAC but also to Trump’s MAGA Inc. The campaign also hired Del Bigtree, who not only spoke at a pro-Trump rally on January 6, 2021, but unfoundedly said, “I wish I could believe that voting machines worked.” Meanwhile, there was the “marketing contractor” who wrote in Kennedy’s fundraising emails that people convicted of taking part in the insurrection were “J6 activists…stripped of their constitutional liberties.” Sure, the campaign says it fired that contractor. But it’s not hard to listen to what Kennedy himself has to say and conclude that he also has very Trump-esque beliefs and is trying to get the ex-president reelected.
Last week, Kennedy said in a statement: “Reasonable people, including Trump opponents, tell me there is little evidence of a true insurrection.”
*Palma confirmed her firing to CNN and told the outlet she believes Kennedy is “still by far the best candidate.” She added: “I dealt with the campaign honestly. I have nothing to defend. Truth defends itself.”
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