LAS VEGAS (Tribune News Service) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged his case for the presidency, promising to bring unity to the government and rebuild trust with the American public if elected in November.

“If there’s an appetite among the American people for the truth, I’m going to be president in November,” he told a crowd of hundreds in Las Vegas.

Kennedy laid out his vision for the country to a curious audience at the annual FreedomFest festival, where “free minds meet to celebrate freedom in an open-minded environment,” according to the event’s website.

Nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the former environmental lawyer is expected to play a pivotal role in the 2024 presidential election. He originally launched his presidential campaign as a Democrat but left his family’s party in October to run as an independent, drawing attention for his anti-vaccine activism and his conspiracist beliefs.

Although Kennedy continues to poll far behind his likely opponents of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the 70-year-old could gain some ground as the presumptive major party nominees face criticism over age and felony convictions, respectively. The latest polling shows Biden and Trump more than 30 points ahead of the third-party candidate on average.

At FreedomFest, Kennedy criticized his major party opponents, especially Biden. He claimed that Biden’s administration weaponized government, specifically mentioning denying Kennedy of secret service protection. He also said he wasn’t shocked by Biden’s debate performance and accused the media — which he bashed heavily — of colluding with the government to hide the state of Biden’s cognition.

Kennedy took soft aim at Trump, saying that while Trump had good instincts in resisting COVID-19 lockdowns, he did not resist the bureaucracy for long. He criticized Trump for putting company heads and lobbyists in roles in his administration, calling them “swamp creatures.”

“Trump’s instinct to drain the swamp was correct, but the swamp swallowed him instead,” Kennedy said. That criticism was met with some boos from the audience.

Kennedy looked back to when he said the American public began to mistrust its government, citing the Pentagon Papers and the Iraq War and the COVID-19 pandemic. He pledged to implement an executive order declaring that any federal official who tells a lie in conjunction with official duties will lose their job.

“Telling the truth is the only way to rebuild trust after decades of lies and ruin,” he said.

He promised to appoint a Cabinet composed of members of the Democratic, Republican Libertarian, Green and other parties outside of the political process and would also form a cross-partisan advisory committee to select Supreme Court justices.

Kennedy pledged to unify the country in a way Biden and Trump cannot.

“We’ve given Democrats their chance to fix this country; we’ve given Republicans their chance,” he said. “What has not had a chance is a unity government headed by an independent president … ready to recruit the best ideas from both parties and from all those who’ve been left out of the American political process in the past.”

Kennedy’s quest for the presidency has been met with friction, especially from Democrats who are concerned Kennedy could siphon votes away from Biden in already close election.

In June, state and national Democrats backed a legal challenge filed in Carson City District Court to keep him off the November ballot in Nevada, and Kennedy’s campaign have submitted signatures twice in order to appear on the ballot.

He and his running mate Nicole Shanahan are officially on the ballot in nine states and submitted signatures to appear on ballots in 15 other states, including Nevada, according to the campaign.

Alicia Browner, an attendee from Texas who considers herself libertarian, would like to see the Democratic Party pick Kennedy as their nominee. She liked his goals to bring unity and to cut out the deep state.

“If every American heard what he said today, he would win,” Browner said.

Jeff Bronez, another Texas resident attending the festival, said Kennedy went up in favorability in his eyes.

“I liked what he was saying,” Bronez said.

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