在小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪周一宣布之后他要离开民主党相反，作为一名独立候选人寻求入主白宫，他立即招致了批评——来自保守派，而不是民主党。
共和党全国委员会主席罗娜·麦克丹尼尔(Ronna McDaniel)迅速发表声明，称这位2024年的希望之星是“穿着独立服装的民主党人”和“典型的精英自由主义者”。
“选民不会被愚弄，”她说。
在委员会做出回应的同时，共和党的国家研究小组(该小组专注于强调有关竞争对手政客的潜在负面信息)公布了自己关于肯尼迪的档案，指出了他之前的几十项声明和政策立场，例如他反对水力压裂法，以及他希望美国摆脱塑料制品。
前总统唐纳德·特朗普的竞选发言人张致恒也有类似的批评。
“选民不应该被任何假装有保守价值观的人所欺骗。...RFK的候选人资格只不过是一个自由派肯尼迪利用他家族的名字赚钱的虚荣心工程，”张宇人在一份声明中说。
然而，乔·拜登总统的竞选团队和国家民主党什么也没说。事实上，民主党全国委员会目前根本不打算对肯尼迪发表意见。相反，该党坚持团结在拜登身后，拜登仍然面临作家兼议长玛丽安娜·威廉森的长期初选挑战。
周一，在一大群人面前宣布他将在2024年以独立身份参选时，肯尼迪援引了美国自己的历史。
“我今天来到这里，宣布我们从腐败之旅中独立出来，腐败剥夺了我们负担得起的生活、我们对未来的信念和我们对彼此的尊重。但要做到这一点，我必须首先宣布我自己的独立性，从民主党独立出来，”他说。
他承认他的转变是选举中的一个转折，尽管从民意调查中仍不清楚他可能会从传统的两党分裂中获得多少支持。没有独立候选人赢得过现代总统选举。
“民主党人害怕我会破坏拜登总统的选举。共和党人害怕我会破坏特朗普总统的计划。事实是他们都是对的，”肯尼迪周一说。“我的意图是破坏他们两个。”
他从保守派而不是主要民主党人那里得到的快速而有力的回应，可能反映了他与共和党部分基础的更密切联系——或者，作为538已经注意到他在共和党中相对较强的受欢迎程度超过了他现在所在的前共和党。
自今年早些时候首次参选以来，肯尼迪一直寻求向右翼伸出援手，甚至在作为民主党人竞选时也是如此。正如ABC新闻此前报道的那样，他过去吸引了相当数量的共和党友好捐助者。
特朗普在本周竞选团队攻击肯尼迪之前，曾称他是“一个非常聪明的人”。
国会共和党人此前还邀请他在众议院一个小组面前就所谓的联邦政府“武器化”作证，认为他是审查的目标，因为他对公共卫生和疫苗攻击的争议性观点。
美国前总统、共和党总统候选人唐纳德·特朗普于2023年9月20日在爱荷华州杜布克举行的2024年总统竞选集会上上台发言。
斯科特·摩根/路透社
肯尼迪在周一的演讲中表示，自从竞选总统以来，他已经对更广泛的政治观点敞开了胸怀。
肯尼迪说:“在过去的六个月里，我放弃了对立场的执着，我能够以新的视角倾听与我意见相左的人，并看到原本看不见的解决方案。”他指的是边境安全等问题。
肯尼迪在宣布参选后首次在电视上露面，他出现在福克斯新闻频道的“福克斯和朋友”节目中，在那里他讨论了他与民主党人的决裂以及他竞选的未来，这也需要他满足各州的要求，才能出现在2024年的选票上。
肯尼迪说:“我们需要一个能够找到我们一致认同的领域和价值观的人，而不是专注于这些让我们相互争斗的小问题。”。
当被问及他是否准备好特朗普可能会追上他时，肯尼迪简单地回答说，他希望特朗普“在这些问题上与我争论”，并“谈论影响美国的问题”。
肯尼迪说:“我认为人们已经厌倦了这种尖酸刻薄，我不会参与其中。”。
538的高级选举分析师杰弗里·斯凯利(Geoffrey Skelley)告诉美国广播公司新闻，鉴于肯尼迪尽管是美国最著名的民主党家族的后裔，但仍受到一些共和党人的欢迎，因此很难辨别哪个政党更容易失去肯尼迪独立竞选的选民。
“测试三位候选人的少数赛马民调往往显示，特朗普在三方竞选中的优势略有上升，但肯尼迪也更受共和党人的喜爱，而不是民主党人。斯凯利说:“早期民调显示肯尼迪的支持率在15%左右，但随着竞选的进行，这样的数字似乎不太可能保持下去。
一些民主党人，如民主党全国委员会成员卡罗尔·福勒(Carol Fowler)，认为他们的基础将因共和党人强调的一些立场而失去，如肯尼迪对疫苗的怀疑。
“也许他的一些反vax立场会让特朗普成为选民。...我只是不知道作为民主党人，他显然没有取得任何进展，”福勒说。
拉里·科恩是民主党全国委员会的另一名成员，也是佛蒙特州独立参议员伯尼·桑德斯的长期盟友，也是桑德斯支持的政治组织“我们的革命”(Our Revolution)的主席。他说，他对这个选举周期第三方投标的担忧是因为他认为无论谁获胜都有风险。科恩特别提到了堕胎政策等领域。
“我们生活在一个对抗真正威胁的时代，”他说。
RFK Jr.'s switch to independent campaign draws criticism from Republicans -- not Democrats
After Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Mondaythat he was leaving the Democratic Partyto instead seek the White House as an independent candidate, he drew immediate criticism -- from conservatives, not Democrats.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel quickly released a statement billing the 2024 hopeful as a "Democrat in Independent's clothing" and a "typical elitist liberal."
"Voters won't be fooled," she said.
In tandem with the committee's response, the GOP's national research team, which focuses on highlighting potentially negative information about rival politicians, released its own dossier on Kennedy pointing to dozens of his prior statements and policy positions of his, such as his opposition to fracking and his desire for the country to wean off plastics.
Former President's Donald Trump's campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung also had similar criticism to share.
"Voters should not be deceived by anyone who pretends to have conservative values. ... An RFK candidacy is nothing more than a vanity project for a liberal Kennedy to cash in on his family's name," Cheung said in a statement.
President Joe Biden's campaign and the national Democratic Party, however, said nothing. In fact, the Democratic National Committee is, for now, not planning on sounding off on Kennedy at all. The party has instead stuck with rallying behind Biden, who still faces a long shot primary challenge from author and speaker Marianne Williamson.
In announcing before a large crowd on Monday that he would run as an independent in 2024, Kennedy invoked America's own history.
"I'm coming here today to declare our independence from the journey of corruption, which robs us of affordable lives, our belief in the future and our respect for each other. But to do that, I must first declare my own independence, independence from the Democratic Party," he said.
He acknowledged how his switch was a twist in the election, though it remains unclear from polling how much support he might draw away from the traditional two-party split. No independent candidate has ever won a modern presidential election.
"The Democrats are frightened that I'm gonna spoil the election for President Biden. The Republicans are frightened that I'm gonna spoil it for President Trump. The truth is they're both right," Kennedy said Monday. "My intention is to spoil it for both of them."
The rapid and robust response he got from conservatives rather than leading Democrats could reflect his closer association with parts of the Republican base -- or, as 538has noted, his relatively strong favorability among the GOP versus his now-former party.
Since his initial launch earlier this year Kennedy has sought to reach out to the right, even when campaigning as a Democrat. As ABC News previously reported, he has attracted a notable number of GOP-friendly donors in the past.
Trump, before his campaign attacked Kennedy this week, had called him a "a very smart person."
Congressional Republicans also previously invited him to testify before a House panel on the alleged "weaponization" of the federal government, believing he was a target of censorship over his controversial views on public health and attacks on vaccines.
In his speech on Monday, Kennedy said that he had opened his mind to a broader array of political perspectives since running for president.
"As I've surrendered my attachment to taking sides over the past six months, I've been able to listen with new ears to people with whom I disagree and to see solutions that would otherwise have been invisible," Kennedy said, referencing issues like border security.
For his first broadcast TV appearance post-announcement, Kennedy appeared on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" where he discussed his break with Democrats and the future of his campaign, which will also require him to satisfy the various state requirements to appear on the 2024 ballot.
"We need somebody who's going to find those areas of agreement, those values we agree on, rather than focus on these little issues that have us at each other's throats," Kennedy said.
When asked if he was ready for Trump to potentially come after him, Kennedy replied simply that he hoped Trump would "dispute me on the issues" and "talk about the issues that affect America."
"I think people are tired of the vitriol, and I'm not going to engage in that," Kennedy said.
Geoffrey Skelley, a senior elections analyst at 538, told ABC News it's still difficult to discern which party is more vulnerable to losing voters to Kennedy's independent bid, given Kennedy's popularity with some Republicans despite being the scion of perhaps the country's most famous Democratic family.
"The handful of horse race polls that test the three candidates tend to show Trump's margin improving slightly in a three-way race, but Kennedy also is more well-liked by Republicans than Democrats. Early polling puts Kennedy's support in the mid-teens, but such figures seem unlikely to hold up as the campaign progresses," Skelley said.
And some Democrats, like Democratic National Committee member Carol Fowler, think their base will be turned off by some of the positions highlighted by Republicans, like Kennedy's skepticism of vaccines.
"Maybe some of his anti-vax positions will make Trump voters. ... I just don't know. He clearly was not making any inroads as a Democrat," Fowler said.
Larry Cohen, another DNC member and longtime ally of independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and also the chair of Our Revolution, a Sanders-aligned political organization, said his concern with third-party bids this election cycle is due to what he sees as the stakes for whomever wins. Cohen singled out areas like abortion policy.
"We're living in a period where we're fighting a real threat," he said.
