(NewsNation) — A large number of Democrats want to see Robert F. Kennedy Jr. engage in a debate against President Joe Biden, but NewsNation political editor Chris Stirewalt said he’s ready to see how Kennedy will rank among GOP voters.
A Trafalgar Group survey found that 78% of voters, 58% of Democrats and 93% of Republicans, favor a Biden-Kennedy faceoff. Another 31% said Biden shouldn’t debate Kennedy.
As a larger number of Republicans want to see the debate, Stirewalt said Kennedy’s platform has aligned with some of the same voters who backed former President Donald Trump.
“There are a lot of MAGA kind of voters, nationalist populists, who are really digging what Kennedy is putting down because of his discussion about vaccines, because of his discussion of the border, because of his opposition to support for Ukraine,” Stirewalt said.
Stirwalt posed two hypotheticals he finds “interesting” — if Kennedy changed and ran as a Republican and an independent run from Kennedy.
“That would be really interesting to see how he would score inside the Republican Party,” Stirewalt said.
He continued, “The chance for an Independent run, the possibility this guy would run as an Independent and siphon off some votes from the Democrats, probably a lot from Republicans, this could get weird, this could get really interesting.”
Kennedy, who’s currently polling around 16%, has had his challenges for a debate denied by Biden.
The Democratic National Committee has yet to officially announce there won’t be a debate.
