Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivers a speech outlining his foreign policy vision at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed supporters in Yorba Linda on Wednesday evening, June 12, outlining his foreign policy initiatives and arguing for a reduction in the size of U.S. military presence overseas.
Kennedy criticized US foreign policy for being “trapped in a world that doesn't exist” and said the US seemed to believe “we are still the world's only superpower and we can manipulate any country into doing what we want.”
In the midst of his dwindling presidential hopes, Kennedy detailed his foreign policy platform at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library as part of the foundation's Presidential Policy Outlook series. But while he argued for a rollback of the country's foreign interventions, he made no mention of the current war in Ukraine or the Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East that has rocked local communities and sparked mass protests on college campuses.
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“The foundations of a nation's strength are the health of its infrastructure, the integrity of its government, the strength of its economy, and the respect for its choices abroad,” Kennedy said. “We must embrace the rise of other great powers in the world.”
Kennedy has previously said the US should reduce its military presence overseas. He said the US should make “significant cuts to our military budget,” most of which he said doesn't help defend the US homeland. If elected, he said he would propose cutting military spending by 50% during his term, which he said would lead to a “stronger, smarter and better targeted defense.”
Kennedy said those funds should be redirected to infrastructure, education and small business development.
His main focus as president will be the national debt, which he cited as “one of the reasons we have to cut our military budget.”
The national budget deficit currently hovers around $1.2 trillion.
“Every dollar we spend on weapons has the potential to create a new job,” he said.
Paying tribute to his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, Kennedy said, “My uncle fought the military-industrial complex during his three years in office. He understood that a president's first job is to keep the country out of war.”
“I foresee the day when America will lead the world by example and not by force; the day when America will stand for peace and not war,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy, who has promoted unproven conspiracy theories, particularly about vaccinations, before launching into his foreign policy speech, reiterated his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic. He criticized the decision to close businesses “without due process or public hearings.” To slow the spread of the virus, many states, including California, closed non-essential businesses and imposed stay-at-home orders in early 2020.
Prior to the evening program, Irvine resident Michael McEntee, one of about 300 attendees who paid up to $75 a ticket to hear Kennedy speak, said he was impressed by the environmental activist's commitment to world peace.
Mr. Maxenti, who leads volunteer efforts for Mr. Kennedy's campaign in Orange County and across California, said he supports Mr. Kennedy's foreign policy, particularly his plan to reduce U.S. military presence overseas.
“We must demonstrate our strength and power through economic means, not military means,” he said.
Mr. Maxenti said he was a “Reagan conservative Republican” before becoming an “independent” in 2010, when he felt that both major parties given the opportunity to lead the country had failed to deliver on their promises.
Maxenti said he believed Kennedy, as president, would “approach other countries from a place of understanding and always seek to pursue peace.”
Kennedy has only run in six states so far – California, Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Oklahoma and Utah – and is running as an independent, along with Cornell West, a political activist who also recently landed in Orange County.
While an independent has never won a presidential election, prominent independents can pose a challenge to major party candidates by drawing support from them, especially in battleground states.
Kennedy, known for his last name and longstanding family traditions (in addition to being the nephew of a former president, he is also the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy), is a threat to President Joe Biden among Latino voters in California, despite coming in a distant third in support, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight.
A new poll from Voto Latino shows Kennedy doing quite well among Latino voters: One in five Latino voters surveyed said they were considering a presidential candidate other than Biden or former President Donald Trump, giving Kennedy the most support among candidates outside the major parties, according to the poll.
While the poll wasn't conducted in California (it surveyed voters in five battleground states — Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada, Texas and Pennsylvania) what was seen among Latino voters in those states likely holds true in California, said Luis DeSipio, a political science professor at the University of California, Irvine.
DeSipio said third-party candidates may be more popular in California because it's not a battleground state and it's “easier for voters to vote in the state.” Additionally, there is dissatisfaction with both Trump and Biden among younger-than-average Latino voters because of “their ages and the perception that neither of them understand the experiences of young, working Latinos,” DeSipio said.
DeSipio added that the name Kennedy may evoke positive memories for many in the Latino community, who may recall Kennedy's father allying with striking farm workers in the '60s and fighting for civil rights issues important to the Latino community alongside the late labor leader Cesar Chavez. (Chavez's family, however, supports Biden and has asked Kennedy not to use his name in campaign posts.)
DeSipio said it was unclear whether the poll's results would hold true in November.
“A typical pattern is that voters generally become more favorable toward third-party candidates in the months leading up to an election, but then revert to their usual partisan leanings as the election approaches,” he said.
In Yorba Linda, home to the Nixon Library, Republicans are nearly twice as likely to vote as Democrats, 47.9% to 26.5%, and two in 10 voters do not choose a party. The city has one of the highest percentages of registered Republican voters in Orange County, second only to nearby Villa Park, where more than half of registered voters are Republican.
But the several hundred people who packed the spacious East Room on Wednesday evening seemed less interested in Trump, the Republican front-runner, and instead gave Kennedy a standing ovation before and after his speech, with some audience members even applauding him at the end of the night with thumbs up or heart-shaped hands raised.
Several cars in the parking lot had bumper stickers and signs that read “Kennedy 2024.”
Kennedy's speech was part of the Nixon Library's 2024 Presidential Policy Outlook series, in which all declared presidential candidates from the major political parties are invited to come to the library and “give a speech in any format, on any topic,” according to the library.
Other presidential candidates who spoke at the presidential library include former 2024 Republican candidates. Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, Mike Pence and Vivek Ramaswamy.