Kennedy: “Last night was a disaster for President Biden"

Robert F. Kennedy in Brooklyn on May 1. Photo by Jason Schott.

On Thursday night, Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took part in The Real Debate, where he responded in real time to Presidents Biden and Trump in their CNN debate, and "gave Americans the debate they deserved."

Veteran journalist John Stossel moderated The Real Debate, as they ran the CNN debate, with the questions and answers from the Presidents before Kennedy gave his own response under the same rules, such as that he had just two minutes to respond. Kennedy stood at a podium observing the CNN debate on a massive monitor to his left, with Stossel at a desk opposite him.

An image from The Real Debate. Screenshot by Jason Schott.

During his opening remarks, Kennedy explained how his exclusion from the CNN debate stage has been widely decried as an act of collusion between two establishment parties terrified of being held to their records and a cable news channel willing to compromise journalistic integrity to secure a multi-million dollar payday."

Kennedy said The Real Debate “is important for our democracy because Americans feel like the system is rigged. This is exactly the kind of merger of state and corporate power that I’m running to oppose.” 

The Real Debate was powered by X and already viewed by more than 9 million people, was broadcast from a studio in Los Angeles with a live audience of more than 200 people. The CNN debate did not have one voter in attendance, a break with precedent.

The Kennedy campaign claimed a victory of sorts, as they proclaimed, "The response from viewers was tremendous. From 'After that, I declare this man my president' to 'Kennedy is the only one who is capable of cleaning things up for our nation' to 'This guy is the only choice,' the internet and airways were buzzing with praise for Kennedy’s performance during last night’s debate."

In his closing remarks, Kennedy emphasized a pledge he made in Brooklyn on May 1, “Day one in office, I'm going to issue an executive order saying any federal official who tells a lie to the American public will lose his job. I'm going to stop the surveillance state. I'm going to stop the propagandizing by our agencies of the American public. I'm going to unravel the war machine. I'm going to unravel the corrupt merger of state and corporate power.

“If you want everything to change, you'll support me. If you want to vote out of fear, you need to support one of those guys. If you want to vote out of hope, out of inspiration, out of pride in your country, out of restoring the moral backbone of our people and our nation, you should vote for me.”

Kennedy gave this response afterwards to the CNN debate: "We have 341 million people in this country and to think those are the best two candidates the political parties can come up with is depressing.

“Last night was a disaster for President Biden. I think people saw how frail he was and even the hardcore Democrats have lost faith that he can even win the election or more importantly, that he can run the country. He seemed very confused.

“It’s scary to think that he’s going to get the call at 3 in the morning, maybe, that we all dread, and he has 6 minutes to make a decision that will affect the lives of everybody on this planet.”