Polls show RFK Jr. having an unpredictable effect on election
Robert F. kennedy Jr. is polling stronger than any third-party candidate has in decades, pulling in roughly 10 percent of registered voters across the battleground states as he saps support from President Biden and former president Donald trump, a new series of polls has found.
the overall results in the Biden versus trump contest were virtually unchanged when kennedy was included in the polls conducted by the New York times, Siena college, and the Philadelphia inquirer. But beneath the surface of that seeming stability, the surveys revealed how kennedy, powered by social media and younger voters, has emerged as an unpredictable X factor in what would otherwise be a 2020 rematch.
with less than six months until the election, the faction of the electorate giving kennedy early support exposes some of the vulnerabilities inside the president’s Democratic coalition. Biden dropped all the way to 33 percent in a five-candidate race, an alarmingly low share of the vote for an incumbent president. the series of polls focused on what are expected to be the most contested states this fall: arizona, georgia, michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and wisconsin.
two of the groups that kennedy performed strongest with in the surveys — voters younger than 30 (18 percent support) and Latinos (14 percent) — have traditionally been strong Democratic constituencies, unnerving some party strategists. Biden is also winning only half of Black voters in the multicandidate race.
kennedy is clearly getting a boost from the rise of social media and the ability to communicate his message directly to voters. among the roughly 1 in 6 voters who said they consumed most of their news from social media, kennedy was getting 16 percent of the vote, nearly equal to Biden’s 18 percent.
among crucial independent voters, kennedy was pulling in 16 percent support. But his supporters say they are far less committed to him than backers of Biden or trump, and less likely to vote at all.
“i would support him as kind of like a protest vote,” said Benjamin Sandoval, 21, a student at the University of michigan.
half of kennedy’s supporters said they were voting chiefly for him, and nearly half said their support was mostly a vote against the other candidates.
NEW YORK TIMES
Hunter Biden gun case to go to trial in June
WILMINGTON, Del. — hunter Biden’s federal gun case will go to trial next month, a judge said tuesday, denying a bid by lawyers for the president’s son to delay the prosecution.
US District Judge maryellen Noreika rejected hunter Biden’s request to push the trial in Delaware until September, which the defense said was necessary to line up witnesses and go through evidence handed over by prosecutors. the judge said she believes “everyone can get done what needs to get done” by the trial’s start date of June 3.
President Biden’s son is accused of lying about his drug use in october 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days. he has pleaded not guilty and acknowledged struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period in 2018, but his lawyers have said he didn’t break the law.
he’s separately charged in a tax case in california that’s tentatively scheduled to go to trial in late June.
Special counsel David weiss’s team plans to show jurors in the gun case portions of hunter Biden’s 2021 memoir, “Beautiful things,” in which he detailed his struggle with alcoholism and drug abuse following the 2015 death of his older brother, Beau, who succumbed to brain cancer at age 46, according to court papers filed tuesday. hunter Biden has said he has been sober since 2019.
During a hearing in Delaware federal court, hunter Biden lawyer abbe Lowell told the judge that many experts the defense has approached have been reluctant to testify in the case, citing the media attention. Prosecutor Derek hines pushed back on the suggestion that the media attention was to blame.
“i don’t know what expert they can find who will say he wasn’t. i think that’s the issue they’re having,” hines said.
Lowell said he wasn’t trying to find an expert to refute Biden’s addiction struggles but to discuss the ability for someone to recognize in the moment they are an addict. aSSociatED PRESS
House Democrats to review oil chiefs’ Trump meeting
house Democrats are launching an investigation into Donald trump’s meeting with oil executives last month at his mar-a-Lago club, where the former president asked the executives to steer $1 billion to his 2024 campaign and promised to reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental policies.
the probe comes after the washington Post on thursday first reported the fund-raising dinner, where trump said that giving $1 billion would be a “deal” because of the taxation and regulation the oil companies would avoid thanks to him, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.
in letters sent monday evening, Democrats on the house oversight committee asked nine oil executives to provide detailed information on their companies’ participation in the meeting. the Democrats voiced concern that trump’s request at the dinner may have been a quid pro quo and may have violated campaign finance laws, although experts say his conduct probably did not cross the threshold of being illegal.
asked about the letter, andrea woods, a spokeswoman for the american Petroleum institute, said in an email that the group “meets with policymakers and candidates from across the political spectrum on topics important to our industry that range from strengthening energy security to addressing persistent U.S. inflation.” waShiNgtoN PoSt