Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says that President Joe Biden isn\u2019t going to compete in the New Hampshire or Iowa primaries next year as he can\u2019t \u201ccontrol the results\u201d in those states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Appearing on \u201cThe Michael Smerconish Program\u201d on SiriusXM, Kennedy said<\/a> that, historically, Biden struggles in those two states, which will lead him to focus elsewhere. The president will instead wait to put his name on the ballot where he has a better shot of clinching the win, like South Carolina, Kennedy suggested<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think that President Biden is not going to even put his name in Iowa and New Hampshire. So I think he\u2019s not even going to compete,\u201d Kennedy told Smerconish. \u201cI think that he did not want to compete in New Hampshire and he wants to go to a state where they \u2026 can control the results more.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kennedy pointed to Biden\u2019s performance in the 2020 primaries as evidence. In the Iowa caucus, Biden placed fourth<\/a>, receiving 15.8% support, behind current Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). In New Hampshire, Biden placed fifth<\/a>, behind Sanders, Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Warren. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think that he has never done well in New Hampshire, and I think he came in fifth in New Hampshire the last time. That\u2019s my memory,\u201d Kennedy said. Speaking on his own path to victory for the 2024 nomination, Kennedy said, \u201cI have to win the primaries,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first state Biden won in the 2020 election season was<\/a> South Carolina, with 47% of the vote. This came after his losses in both Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as Nevada, in which Biden came in second. Many credit his win in the Palmetto State to Rep. James Clyburn\u2019s (D-SC) endorsement, which helped turn his campaign around, according<\/a> to The Hill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While New Hampshire and Iowa are historically the first voting states in the country, the Democratic National Committee switched it up for the upcoming election season, moving Iowa out of its first-in-the-nation slot and replacing<\/a> it with South Carolina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kennedy announced<\/a> his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president in mid-April, vowing to \u201cend the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening now to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism on our country.\u201d While a longshot candidate, he appears to be polling well against the sitting president, garnering 20% support in a CNN poll<\/a> released two weeks ago. In that poll, 60% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters backed Biden, and the president\u2019s favorable views had declined in the previous six months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic and founder of the nonprofit organization Children\u2019s Health Defense, appeared on a Twitter Spaces on Monday with the social media site\u2019s owner, Elon Musk. During the conversation, Kennedy spoke on the importance of free speech and said he was \u201cpretty much a free-speech absolutist.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s never been a time in history when we look back and say that the people who are censoring free speech were the good guys,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cThey\u2019re always the bad guys. It\u2019s always the first step toward totalitarianism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n