Presidential candidate RFK Jr. for 2024 urges other Democrats to challenge President Biden in the primary, saying the 80-year-old should participate in debates to “show” Americans he can handle the pressure.
“I think the more people get involved, the better it is for our democracy,” RFK told DailyMail.com during an exclusive interview. “We have to distinguish ourselves from the old Soviet Union, where the party chose the leaders and the people really had no choice.”
“It’s a kabuki theater of democracy, and we need to do better,” the 2024 Democratic nominee continued.
RFK’s leadership of the White House and its stances on vaccines and COVID are highly controversial and have sparked outrage from members of his famous family and other Democrats.
His views would likely spark intense discussion during an on-stage meeting with Biden, but the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is shutting down any suggestion about the president’s participation in debates.
President Joe Biden told reporters last week that he planned to watch the Republican primary debate. “I don’t have one,” he said when asked what his expectations were, smiling and laughing
Last week, a top adviser to the DNC did not force President Joe Biden to participate in any of the general election debates.
“We haven’t discussed that. Not at all,” replied Cedric Richmond, longtime DNC adviser, when a reporter asked if Biden would commit to debating in the general election.
“I’m sure that will happen some day, but it’s not today and I have no news about that.”
“President Biden is the Democratic nominee along with Vice President Harris and if you look at both parties if they have an incumbent president, the incumbent president is not participating in debates and there are no primaries on our side,” Richmond continued.
RFK tells DailyMail.com he “naturally” thinks the DNC is wrong and that Biden should take the debate stage because it’s an opportunity for the 80-year-old to “show” he can handle himself.
“I think President Biden needs to debate and it needs to show he can handle a debate in the primary so we can understand he can handle the general as well.”
“And he will have to debate President Trump,” he added.
RFK also said Americans are losing confidence in the country’s electoral system.
“Of course I think President Biden should debate. We live in a democracy. We are going through a time right now where so many people in this country believe that the system has been manipulated, that democracy is broken, that the economic and political systems have been manipulated.”
He says this applies to both political parties: Democrats and Republicans.
And it’s very important, I think, as both political parties show the American people and the rest of the world that we are still the exemplary democracy, that when politicians are at the helm, the people actually elect them. That they debate with each other, that they meet people, that they don’t just talk to their donors, but actually talk to the American people.’
RFK and Marianne Williamson are the only two announced challengers to Biden’s primary bid.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted earlier this summer, Biden has the support of nearly 70 percent of Democratic voters, compared to 17 percent for RFK and 8 percent for Williamson.
When asked if he believes Biden is too old to run, RFK dodged.
“I try to focus my comments on the issues rather than personal issues,” he told DailyMail.com.
According to a new poll released this week by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 77 percent say Biden is too old to be effective for another four years. And surprisingly, not only 89 percent of Republicans say so, but also 69 percent of Democrats.
That view is shared by all age groups, not just young people, although older Democrats in particular are more supportive of his 2024 bid.
Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history and would be 82 years old at the start of a second term if reelected in the 2024 election.
He was described as “old” and “confused” by the poll’s respondents.
“I think President Biden needs to debate and it needs to show he can handle a debate in the primary so we can understand he can handle the general as well,” RFK told DailyMail.com
Then-President Donald Trump and Joe Biden traded points during their first presidential debate in 2020
RFK also criticized the Biden administration for its deadly exit from Afghanistan, which killed 13 US servicemen and more than 170 Afghans almost exactly two years ago.
He says there should be a formal “investigation” into it.
“It seems—and this is what the families of those men, those heroes, believe—it was a priority for the White House to get the withdrawal done before September 11—by a certain date.”
And that the rush to accomplish that mission at that moment, that arbitrary timeline, led to the deaths of those thirteen Americans. And that is unforgivable.’