Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. joined former President Trump on stage at his Friday rally in Glendale, Arizona, hours after the third-party candidate announced he was suspending his presidential campaign and endorsing the Republican nominee.
"We are both in this to do what's right for the country," Trump told the large crowd inside the Desert Diamond Arena with RFK Jr. standing beside him, adding that if he wins the presidency, he would establish an independent presidential commission on assassination attempts that would also be tasked with releasing all the remaining documents related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, RFK Jr.'s uncle, who was killed in 1963.
"He is a phenomenal person, a phenomenal man who loves the people of this country," Trump added of RFK Jr.
The former long-shot candidate said he had more than one meeting with Trump starting last month, in which they "talked not about the things that separate us because we don't agree on everything, but on the values and the issues that bind us together. And one of the issues that he talked about was having safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic."
He added of Trump: "Don't you want a president who's going to protect America's freedoms and who is going to protect us against totalitarianism? … Don't you want a safe environment for your children? Don't you want to know that the food that you're feeding them is not filled with chemicals that are going to give them cancer and chronic disease? And don't you want a president that's going to make America healthy again?"
Trump added that RFK Jr. "did well in the polls" but the two-party system made it "very tough" for his candidacy.
He also pitched to RFK Jr.'s supporters.
"And all who supported Bobby's campaign, I very simply ask you to join us in building this coalition," Trump said. "It's a beautiful coalition in defense of liberty and safety, prosperity and peace. It's going to be an incredible coalition, and the relationship has been so good for so long. I have no doubt it's going to work and work well, but we have to win. We have to take our country away from these people that are going to destroy our country."
Trump and RFK Jr. rallied a capacity crowd in the same arena where Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Gov. Tim Walz held a rally earlier this month.
RFK Jr. endorsed Trump earlier Friday, saying that he planned to stay off the ballot in red and blue states, so people could vote for him there, but remove his name from battleground states.
"Three causes drove me to enter this race in the first place. And these are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent and now to throw my support at President Trump," RFK said. "The causes were free speech, war in Ukraine and the war on our children."
Kennedy said that the Democratic National Committee "waged continued legal war" on both Trump and himself while also accusing the DNC of running a "sham primary" that prevented a serious primary challenge to President Biden before he secured the Democratic nomination and dropped out in July, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.
TRUMP THANKS RFK JR FOR ENDORSEMENT AFTER THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATE SUSPENDS HIS CAMPAIGN: 'THAT'S BIG'
Harris' campaign reached out to RFK Jr. supporters in a statement to Fox News on Friday.
"For any American out there who is tired of Donald Trump and looking for a new way forward, ours is a campaign for you. In order to deliver for working people and those who feel left behind, we need a leader who will fight for you, not just for themselves, and bring us together, not tear us apart. Vice President Harris wants to earn your support. Even if we do not agree on every issue, Kamala Harris knows there is more that unites us than divides us: respect for our rights, public safety, protecting our freedoms, and opportunity for all."
DNC senior advisor Mary Beth Cahill said "good riddance."
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"The more voters learned about RFK Jr. the less they liked him. Donald Trump isn’t earning an endorsement that’s going to help build support, he’s inheriting the baggage of a failed fringe candidate. Good riddance," she said.
