Attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is claiming that censorship is responsible for his campaign’s failure to gain traction in the general election.

On Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Kennedy blamed his inability to pick up steam in the general election on “Sixteen months of censorship, of not being able to get on any network really except for Fox.”

“When Ross Perot ran, in the 10 months that he ran he had 34 appearances on the networks,” Mr. Kennedy said. “I had two appearances in 16 months, so I was blocked out of the networks and I was blocked out of the debate. I had no path to victory.”

On Friday, Mr. Kennedy suspended his independent campaign for president and endorsed President Trump, despite previously railing against the former president.

Mr. Kennedy was reportedly pushed to run for president by a former advisor to Trump, Steve Bannon, and enjoyed the financial support of at least one Trump mega donor, Timothy Mellon.

According to Mr. Kennedy, he and Trump had been in contact periodically throughout the campaign, with a video leaking as early as mid-July showing Mr. Kennedy and Trump discussing a potential endorsement.

“He invited me to form a unity government. We agreed that we’d be able to continue to criticize each other on the issues where we don’t agree, but these issues are so important and they’re a way of unifying the country,” Mr. Kennedy said, referencing the war in Ukraine, censorship, and children’s health.

In a tweet following up his appearance on Fox News, Mr. Kennedy described what he thinks “‘MAGA’ really means.” 

“The phrase has troubled liberals who think it is a call for a return to an America before civil rights, gay rights, and women’s rights,” Mr. Kennedy wrote. “But I have a more generous interpretation, one that is truer to my experience of Donald Trump as he is today.”

Mr. Kennedy continued “‘Make America Great Again’ recalls a nation brimming with vitality, with a can-do spirit, with hope and a belief in itself.”

Mr. Kennedy initially looked to be siphoning more support from President Biden when he was still in the race. However, since Vice President Harris became the Democratic nominee, it appears that Mr. Kennedy was drawing more support from Trump voters.

Mr. Kennedy’s polling steadily declined as the campaign went on, with him sitting at just 4.6 percent support in FiveThirtyEight’s polling average when he dropped out of the race. Mr. Kennedy had enjoyed double digit national support earlier this year.
In the final analysis, it’s not clear that Mr. Kennedy’s decision to drop out of the race is a major boon for Trump’s chances of winning, though it probably helps him on the margins. It’s not yet clear whether Mr. Kennedy’s supporters will heed his endorsement and vote for Trump.