Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rails against corporations in Phoenix speech

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a stump speech in Phoenix on Wednesday railing against corporations he said are robbing wealth from the middle class, harming the environment and fostering wars to help their profits.

Kennedy, running for president as an independent, has made a career speaking out against vaccines of all types, but had little to say about that Wednesday, focusing more on economic hardships faced by Americans.

In his hour-long speech under a banner reading "Declare your independence" at a west Phoenix wedding venue, he said that six of his seven children who are aged 20 to 30 now are unlikely to ever buy a home despite landing good jobs.

"The American dream for them has become a nightmare," he said. "The system is rigged against them."

The several hundred people in attendance cheered loudly before Kennedy even took the stage as screens showed snippets of interviews with him promising to "end the chronic disease epidemic" if elected president.

Once on stage, he blamed the housing crisis, California homelessness and other problems in the country on greedy corporations, citing investment company BlackRock Inc. multiple times.

He declined to say anything negative about the race's front runners, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, other than to mock their assertions that either brought economic prosperity to the country during their terms.

"I can change the direction of this country, and if I get in the White House, I'm going to do it," he said.

Kennedy's uncle John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States, and his father served as U.S. attorney general and as a U.S. senator from New York. His father was a presidential candidate in 1968, when he was assassinated in Los Angeles.

"When my uncle was president, this country owned half the wealth on earth ...," Kennedy said Wednesday as his comments were drowned out by loud applause. "And we were also the moral authority around the world."

Robert Kennedy Jr. says little about vaccines

Kennedy has been a prominent critic of vaccines of all types, though he largely has avoided that topic in his presidential run, while still reaching out to supporters of the anti-vaccine nonprofit he founded called Children's Health Defense.

Earlier this year, the Associated Press found that an anti-vaccine book for which Kennedy wrote the forward, and which suggested COVID-19 vaccines caused sudden deaths, used a cover photo of a child who died suddenly but had never gotten such a vaccine. The photo was used without the parent's consent, according to the story.

Kennedy's long history of false claims about vaccines warranted a three-part fact-checking series from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania earlier this year.

It notes that in 2019, 83 people died of measles in Somoa after Kennedy's group flooded the island with misinformation after two infants died the prior year when vaccines were improperly mixed.

The report notes his anti-vaccine campaign began in 2005 when he published a story in Rolling Stone and on Salon.com falsely suggesting vaccines cause autism. Salon retracted the story and Rolling Stone deleted it.

Kennedy Jr. opposes U.S. involvement in Ukraine

Kennedy has opposed U.S. intervention in the war in Ukraine, and said Wednesday it was "a war we should never have gotten into."

He suggested U.S. support for Ukraine was rooted in the benefits for defense companies and military contractors.

He said both Democrats and Republicans are financially benefiting from the conflict, and cited Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's opposition to the conflict — "God bless him" — to loud applause.

How is RFK Jr. doing in the polls versus Biden and Trump?

With Trump expected to win the Republican nomination to run against Biden in next year's presidential election, Kennedy is widely seen as a spoiler, with little chance of winning the race but some chance of tipping it to one candidate or another.

Kennedy initially planned to run for president as a Democrat but shifted to independent in October.

A Quinnipiac Poll this week showed in a three-person hypothetical 2024 general election, Kennedy got 22% support from poll respondents, while Biden received 38% support and Trump received 36%.

Kennedy said Wednesday he is polling well among young people but not with Baby Boomers, who he said rely too much on mainstream media and don't know how to use the internet to seek out news from podcasts.

He specifically cited Joe Rogan, a comedian and former UFC commentator who ignited a controversy last year over an interview with a doctor opposed to COVID-19 vaccines, as a reliable news source, and his warm-up video showed a clip of him on Rogan's show.

Kennedy asked attendees both for their signatures, which he needs to appear on the ballot, and donations for his campaign.

In October, some analysis showed Kennedy more likely to take votes from Biden, but a more recent poll by the Wall Street Journal indicates his campaign could be a bigger drag on Trump.

Voters in attendance Wednesday weren't easily categorized as Trump or Biden defectors.

"I'm sick and tired of being given crap for a choice," said Michael Pierce, a 72-year-old high school history teacher who, unlike Kennedy, had unkind words for both Biden and Trump.

In 2020, Pierce said he wrote in a candidate rather than vote for either of the major party choices, and he said he's ready to vote for Kennedy in 2024.

"He has the courage to speak truth to power," Piece said of Kennedy.

Heath and Christina McLaughlin of Scottsdale stood in line to take selfies with Kennedy after his speech, in which the candidate frequently cited his work as an environmental lawyer.

"I just like his experience taking on agencies and trying to get corporate power rooted out of our system," said Heath, 30.

Christina, 29, said Kennedy's words about restoring faith in the American dream resonated with her.

"I have so many friends who have ... lost faith all together (in the country)," she said.

As an independent not affiliated with a major political party, Kennedy could skip Arizona's Presidential Preference Election on March 19 and proceed to the Nov. 5 general election.

Arizona requires such candidates get signatures from 3% of registered voters as of Jan. 2. While that number is not yet known, as of the last count in October, Arizona had about 4.2 million registered voters, meaning Kennedy would need to gather about 126,000 signatures to get on the ballot.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives Phoenix stump speech