Ralph Nader, the man blamed for Democrats losing the White House in 2000, said in a new interview that third-party challengers should withdraw, arguing that President Joe Biden is the only choice over “fascism” ‘ which represents former President Donald Trump.
Nader, 89, spoke to The Washington Post an interview published on Tuesday and wouldn’t admit to playing “spoiler” in 2000, which cost Democrat Al Gore the election, but said third-party hopefuls should think twice this time.
He complimented likely Green Party hopeful Cornel West and one of the two Democrats challenging Biden, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but argued they lacked the infrastructure or discipline to win, respectively.
“We’re stuck with Biden now,” Nader told The Post. “In a two-party duopoly, the logic is that if one is violently defeated, the other will gain the upper hand.”
Nader also claimed that Democrats should have an alternative to Biden in their back pocket, arguing that Vice President Kamala Harris is “simply incapable” and would not win a general election.
Ralph Nader, whose 2000 presidential run as the Green Party candidate was largely blamed for Democrat Al Gore’s loss, told The Washington Post that third-party candidates should withdraw to prevent the reelection of Republican former President Donald Trump.
Nader said the Green Party, with Cornel West (left), did not have the infrastructure to mount a serious challenge in the White House, while Robert F. Kennedy (right), currently running for the Democratic primary, did not had reporting discipline.
“Unfortunately, things happen quickly in the 80s to people, so they need to have a plan B in case something happens,” Nader said, referring to Biden’s age.
Nader’s choice of third-party challengers came because he viewed Trump’s reelection as such a danger.
“Ralph is in a different place because America is in a different place,” former New York City Democratic public advocate Mark Green told The Post, giving context to Nader’s evolution.
‘This phase stops a life-ending comet like the one that stopped the dinosaurs. He says this is an existential battle and that he will do everything he can to stop Trump and Trumpism.”
Speaking to The Post, Nader put it in a more philosophical light.
“I know the difference between fascism and autocracy, and I will accept autocracy at any time,” Nader said. “Fascism is what the Republican Party is the architecture of, and autocracy is what the Democrats are practitioners of. But autocracy leaves an opening. They don’t suppress the voices. They don’t suppress freedom of speech.’
Nader paid the president a pseudo-complement, adding, “Biden is better than ever, but he’s still terrible on Empire and Wall Street.”
But he is a more likely winner than Kennedy, who Nader characterized as a candidate unable to go his own way.
Nader said Democrats are “stuck with” 80-year-old President Joe Biden (R) as their candidate of choice, but also warned they should have a backup plan because of his age, calling Vice President Kamala Harris “simply incapable ‘. ‘of winning a general election
“Bobby Kennedy gives much of his speech about corporate power. And it couldn’t be better. But then he has a bizarre check mark on vaccines and Ashkenazi Jews,” Nader noted.
In July, Kennedy was caught on tape saying COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” in a way that spared Jews and Chinese.
The 2024 hopeful made it clear he did not believe COVID-19 was designed for that purpose.
“His advisers should tell him, ‘Why do you keep bringing up these crazy things?'” Nader said. “That’s the tragedy of his campaign. He can’t help but bring up new bizarre correlations like causality and so on.’
Kennedy is currently running in the Democratic primary, but has recently hinted at a third-party bid — and met with the chairman of the Libertarian Party in July.
As for West, a candidate The Atlantic Ocean reports this was already making the White House nervous, Nader said he simply didn’t have the kind of party infrastructure to be a success.
‘Cornel West has the most complete progressive agenda. There are virtually no progressive aberrations,” Nader told The Post. ‘The problem is that the Greens are not that organised. It’s hardly a secret. And you can’t run a presidential campaign if you don’t have local candidates and some sort of “nationwide” organization.
Nader’s interview with The Post comes as polls show the effect West and other third-party hopefuls could have on the race, putting Biden in a losing position against Trump.
NBC’s new poll released Sunday showed Biden and Trump tied at 46 in a two-way race.
But when a libertarian, a green and a “no labels” moderate candidate entered the fray, Biden lost 36 percent to Trump’s 39 percent.
In that scenario, a Libertarian candidate would take 5 percent of the electorate, a No Labels candidate would siphon 5 percent and a Green Party candidate would receive 4 percent support, the poll found.
It also comes after NBC reported that Hillary Clinton pulled Biden aside to warn him to take third-party threats seriously after losing by a narrower margin than Green Party candidate Jill Stein in three key states in 2016.