RFK Jr predicts Trump's guilty verdict will help him return to White House

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday said he expects that former President Donald Trump's guilty verdict in his hush money case will actually help the former president get elected in November.

Kennedy, who has launched a dark horse bid for the White House, said the Democratic plan to "go after" Trump in court will backfire at the ballot box. Trump was found guilty by a New York jury on Thursday, on all 34 felony counts of falsifying his business records to hide an alleged hush money payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels.

"America deserves a President who can win at the ballot box without compromising our government’s separation of powers or weaponizing the courts," Kennedy posted to X. "You can’t save democracy by destroying it first. The Democrats are afraid they will lose in the voting booth, so instead they go after President Trump in the courtroom."

Kennedy said that while he was also running against Trump, he was challenging Trump on his policies and not in court. Kennedy also claimed that the same policies he was attacking and confronting Trump on were the same policies that the current White House pursues.

"I’m also running against President Trump in this election. The difference is I’m challenging him on his record," Kennedy said. "His lockdowns during Covid. His atrocious environmental record. His cozy relationship with corporate America. His support for the war machine. His failure to root out waste and corruption in Washington. His service to the billionaire class. His bloating of the national debt. These are the issues that shape American lives."

President Joe Biden attempted to lobby for donations after the verdict, claiming that although the conviction was an important victory for Democrats, beating Trump at the ballot box was even more important. 

“The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater," Michael Tyler, Biden 2024 campaign communications director, wrote in a statement. "A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence — and the American people will reject it this November."