Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Friday that he is endorsing Republican Donald Trump's White House bid, but he's not "terminating" his independent presidential campaign. 

Instead, he's staying in the race in certain states, but removing his name from the ballot in several battleground states.

What You Need To Know

  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Friday that he is endorsing Republican Donald Trump's White House bid, but he's not "terminating" his independent presidential campaign, just removing his name from the ballot in battleground states

  • Kennedy held an event in Phoenix later Friday, where he railed against what he baselessly charged was collusion between Democrats, media outlets and tech companies attempting to suppress him

  • Rumors about Kennedy's possible exit from the race and potential endorsement of Trump began swirling earlier this week when his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, said in an interview that their campaign was deciding whether to stay in through the November election or drop out and align themselves with the Republican ex-president

  • Trump, meanwhile, said in an interview Thursday that he'd be "honored" to be backed by the Kennedy family scion; he is also set to hold an event in Arizona later Friday, in nearby Glendale

The news first emerged Friday in a Pennsylvania court filing, which cites "today's endorsement of Donald Trump for the office of President of the United States" in response to a legal challenge to keep him off of Pennsylvania's ballot; Kennedy's campaign also asked to remove him from the Pennsylvania ballot.

Kennedy held an event in Phoenix later Friday, where he railed against what he baselessly charged was collusion between Democrats, media outlets and tech companies attempting to suppress him.

"I don't want any of this to sound like a personal complaint, because it's not," said Kennedy, after bashing Democrats, President Joe Biden and legacy media outlets for the better part of 15 minutes.

Kennedy made clear that he's "not terminating" his campaign: "I am simply suspending it and not ending it ... my name will remain on the ballot in most states. If you live in a blue state, you can vote for me without harming or helping President Trump or Vice President Harris, and in red states, the same will apply."

"But in about 10 battleground states where my presence would be a spoiler, I'm going to remove my name," Kennedy said. "I've already started that process and urge voters not to vote for me."

It's not clear which states he will be removing himself from. 

"It's with a sense of victory and not defeat that I'm suspending my campaign activities," Kennedy added.

Three causes drove Kennedy to enter the race -- and thus drove him to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and eventually endorse Trump, he said: Free speech, the war in Ukraine and "the war on our children."

"Now one of the two candidates adopted these issues as his own to the point where he has asked to enlist me in his administration," Kennedy said. "I'm speaking, of course, of Donald Trump."

Kennedy detailed that he met with Trump, who suggested forming a "unity government" with him. Following his conversation with Trump, Kennedy says he tried to reach out to Harris, who he says declined to speak with him. 

In a statement, members of Kennedy's family -- who endorsed Biden over him earlier this year in a rebuke to him -- condemned his endorsement of Trump as "a betrayal to the values that our father and our family hold most dear."

"It is a sad ending to a sad story," said his siblings Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Chris Kennedy and Rory Kennedy. 

A spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee said "good riddance."

"The more voters learned about RFK Jr. the less they liked him," said DNC senior advisor Mary Beth Cahill. "Donald Trump isn’t earning an endorsement that’s going to help build support, he’s inheriting the baggage of a failed fringe candidate."

Trump, however, at an event in Las Vegas, called him "a great guy, respected by everybody." He teased that he would have more to say on it at an event later Friday in Arizona.

His announcement comes one day after his campaign withdrew from Arizona's ballot, signaling that he was potentially mulling an end to his presidential campaign.

Rumors about Kennedy's possible exit from the race and potential endorsement of Trump began swirling earlier this week when his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, said in an interview that their campaign was deciding whether to stay in through the November election or drop out and align themselves with the Republican ex-president.

In an episode of the Impact Theory podcast posted Tuesday, Shanahan said if Kennedy presses on and receives 5% of the popular vote, “we actually establish ourselves as a party” and become eligible for future public campaign funds. But, she added, “We run the risk of a Kamala Harris and [Minnesota Gov. Tim] Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump.” 

“Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump and … we explain to our base why we're making this decision,” she said, adding it is not an easy decision.

Trump, meanwhile, said in an interview Thursday that he'd be "honored" to be backed by the Kennedy family scion, and said he "probably would" consider naming him to a future administration. He is also set to hold an event in Arizona later Friday, in nearby Glendale.

"He is a very good person," Trump told Fox News in a phone interview. "If he endorsed me, I would be honored by it. I would be very honored by it. He really has his heart in the right place. He is a respected person,

There's some evidence that Kennedy's staying in the race would hurt Trump more than Harris. According to a July AP-NORC poll, Republicans were significantly more likely than Democrats to have a favorable view of Kennedy. And those with a positive impression of Kennedy were significantly more likely to also have a favorable view of Trump (52%) than Harris (37%).

While at one point Kennedy was receiving as much as 15% support in polls, most recent surveys -- particularly those in the aftermath of President Joe Biden's exit from the race in favor of Harris -- have him sitting in the single digits. 

Harris' campaign and Democrats, meanwhile, have panned Kennedy as a "spoiler for Donald Trump" and downplayed the potential impact of his exit and endorsement of the Republican ex-president.

“We are very confident that the vice president is going to win whether she is running against one candidate or multiple candidates,” Harris campaign co-chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said at a Politico event on the sidelines of the DNC. 

She went on to say that while people were unsure of what kind of candidate Kennedy would be when he first entered– Kennedy entered the race as a Democrat before dropping the party affiliation – he has “landed” on being more aligned with the former president. She argued that Trump, similarly to Kennedy, is seeing a dip in polling numbers. 

“The more the American people hear from him, the more we see that they don’t like him that much and they think that what he is saying is more extreme,” she said of Kennedy. “You saw his numbers peak several months ago, they’ve continued to drop. I think that’s similar to what we are seeing with Donald Trump.”

A memo from DNC adviser Ramsey Reid charged that Kennedy "was recruited into the race by MAGA Republicans like Steve Bannon, his candidacy was propped up by Trump’s largest donor, and he parroted MAGA attacks on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris."

"MAGA Republicans elevated RFK Jr.’s sham candidacy as a tool to mislead voters and hurt Democrats, and RFK Jr.’s exit is an admission their gambit failed," Reid wrote. 

Reid pointed to Kennedy's drop in the polls, particularly in the area of favorability, as voters learned more about him, and sought to highlight his reported connection to Bannon and support from Trump megadonor Timothy Mellon.

Spectrum News' Joseph Konig and Ryan Chatelain, and The Associated Press, contributed to this report.