LARRY KUDLOW: RFK, Jr.’s endorsement of Donald Trump buried Kamala Harris’ speech last night

RFK, Jr.’s endorsement of Donald Trump buried Kamala Harris’ speech last night at the DNC and that's the subject of the riff. Kamala Harris gave a reasonably well-presented speech last night at the DNC, but of course it was full of platitudes and any number of lies about Donald Trump's record. She worked overtime to hide her ultra-liberal progressivism and her big government socialism, but unfortunately for her, the big news today comes from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who has just endorsed Donald Trump. 

In a sense, Mr. Kennedy just wiped out Kamala's DNC speech from the news cycle and Kennedy's logic was hard hitting and well put together. First up, he said he's throwing his support to President Trump because "the causes were free speech, war in Ukraine and the war on our children" and then he blasted the Democratic Party for its legal warfare against President Trump and himself. 

Take a Listen: "The DNC waged continual legal warfare against both President Trump and myself. Each time that our volunteers turned in those towering boxes of signatures needed to get on the ballot, the DNC dragged us into court, state after state, attempting to erase their work and to subvert the will of the voters who had signed those petitions. It deployed DNC aligned judges to throw me and other candidates off the ballot and to throw President Trump in jail." 

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Then he mocked all the Democratic celebrity speakers at their convention by noting they mentioned Donald Trump 47 times just on the first day: "Oh, who needs a policy when you have Trump to hate?" He goes on to say, "President Biden was mentioned only twice in four days," but there's more than just Mr. Kennedy's frustration with the undemocratic Democratic Party. 

Here’s Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on foreign policy: "We've pushed Russia into a disastrous alliance with China and Iran. We're closer to the brink of nuclear exchange than any time since 1962 and the neocons in the White House don't seem to care at all." 

He also put in a word for King Dollar. Take a listen: "Our moral authority and our economy are in shambles, and the war gave rise to the emergence of BRICs, which now threatens to replace the dollar as the global reserve currency. This is a first-class calamity for our country." 

It turns out Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Trump have had several meetings in recent weeks and Kennedy outlined a number of issues where he has made common cause with President Trump. 

Take a listen: "We are aligned with ending the childhood disease epidemic, securing the border, protecting freedom of speech, unraveling the corporate capture of our regulatory agencies, getting the U.S. intelligence agencies out of the business of propagandizing and censoring and surveilling Americans and interfering with our elections." 

As the RFK, Jr. news filtered out, the pay-to-play betting markets have posted a 51% to 48% lead for Mr. Trump over Ms. Harris. Not only has the Kennedy news stepped on and nearly buried any Kamala speech news from last night, but there was basically nothing much in serious policy terms coming out of that speech, although it was well delivered. Now, she lied about Trump cutting Medicare and social security. He said a million times he won't.

She lied about Trump backing the Project 2025 agenda because he has also said a million times he doesn't know anything about it and doesn't support it. She lied about Trump wanting a national ban on abortion, because he said a million times he doesn't support that and instead favors turning the issue over to the states as per the Supreme Court -- and meanwhile favors ‘Reaganesque’ exclusions on rape, incest, and the health of the mother.

In fact, it's Ms. Harris who wants a nationwide abortion right that would go right through the horrific late-term abortion. On the economy, it was sort of like Kamala was saying, "I’m not Joe Biden and I haven't been in the White House these past nearly 4 years." Wait a minute! You have been in the White House as a key player, and you have supported the Bidenomics tax, regulate and spend agenda, the war on fossil fuels, and the affordability crisis where prices have increased faster than wages because of your overspending. 

She can't hide this and Mr. Trump will pin it on her during the debates as he has already pinned it on her in his numerous recent speeches and press conferences and, by the way, she has a tax agenda identical to Joe Biden, chronicled by none other than a key recent New York Times news story.  

She'll kill wages and business competitiveness by jacking up the corporate tax, raise the top income tax on small businesses, raise the capital gains tax from 24% to 44% and impose the first ever wealth tax on unrealized capital gains. All of this reminds me of the late great Jack Kemp who often said you can't tax your way into prosperity, and he often added, you can't have capitalism without capital, but Ms. Harris is not a fan of capitalism, as we know. 

She aligns with big government socialism, though she didn't go near it in her speech. She is also a cultural radical, pushing the DEI affirmative action wherever possible, and burying the historic American values of merit. She promised a strong military, but the Biden-Harris budgets cut defense spending in real terms after inflation. 

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She said how she would keep America strong, but never mentioned the catastrophe of fleeing Afghanistan and leaving $85 billion of weapons to the radical terrorist Taliban. 

Of course, she never mentioned Iranian appeasement and pullback of the tough Trump sanctions on oil that had been used to finance the war against Israel and the U.S. 

I am in awe of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. whose policy reasons for supporting Donald Trump are so much closer to what Americans are actually thinking. I do not agree with everything Mr. Kennedy said, but we do agree on some issues and for Mr. Kennedy's direct and specific reasons for the Trump endorsement and turning on his undemocratic Democrats. That's why he’s winning the news cycle. That’s why today he's given Mr. Trump a very big leg up to win the election. That’s the riff. 

 This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the Aug. 23, 2024, edition of "Kudlow."