He’s controversial. He has a famous last name. His candidacy may determine who’s the next U.S. president.
And on Saturday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was at Kotecki’s Grandview Grove in West Seneca to speak at an event sponsored by the Constitutional Coalition of New York State. More than 300 people attended the $50-per-seat event, listening to the independent presidential candidate lecture about vaccines, environmental protection, Constitutional rights, and health and politics.
After a brief story about his first trip to Buffalo when he was 10, Kennedy launched into a 40-minute speech about the country’s national debt, involvement in wars and his priority of ending the chronic disease epidemic.
“None of the presidential candidates are going to talk about this and none of them are going to do anything about it,” Kennedy said.
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Kennedy also focused plenty on his criticism on the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the trust-the-experts approach to vaccinations, arguing that merely trusting the experts is not how democracy works.
“If you don’t think the government is lying to you, you’re not paying attention,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy, the son of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, is a polarizing figure in the U.S. presidential race. He’s an environmental lawyer who has been criticized for his views on vaccines as well as pushing what some deem conspiracy theories. Still, his famous name and his appeal among voters disenchanted with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump means he could play the role of spoiler in determining which of the two candidates emerges victorious this November.
Kennedy’s campaign is racing to get his name on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, something that won’t be easy as an independent candidate.
Kennedy has reportedly officially qualified for ballot access in three states – Utah, Michigan and Hawaii – and his campaign has claimed it has enough signatures to get him on the ballot in several other states.
New York is among the more difficult states to get on the ballot as an independent candidate, requiring a minimum of 45,000 signatures during a narrow six-week window that ends May 28.
In an interview with The Buffalo News this week, Kennedy said his campaign has volunteers working in almost every county in New York State to collect signatures. In the campaign’s first week of gathering signatures, Kennedy said they were able to collect 10,000.
“We’re going to shoot for about 80,000,” Kennedy said.
Campaign volunteers were busy gathering signatures at Saturday’s event, as attendees drank coffee and…
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