The Memo: Democrats divided on whether to attack or ignore RFK Jr.

The surprising early strength of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign is sparking unease among Democrats — and leaving them divided about what to do about it.

Kennedy has drawn support between approximately 15 percent to 20 percent in recent polls of Democratic voters. 

It’s a level that is not high enough to indicate he is seriously endangering President Biden’s march to his party’s nomination.

But, for a candidate often derided as an anti-vaccine crank who is running against an incumbent president, it is enough to make some Democrats sweat.

Party strategists cleave into two camps on the question of how Biden and his campaign should respond.

One faction argues that Biden should ignore Kennedy. Engaging him would only legitimize and elevate his candidacy, they say.

The other school of thought holds that Kennedy is too dangerous a figure to let campaign unimpeded. This second camp notes that, even if Kennedy never looks like a fully serious contender for the nomination, he could hurt Biden if he continues edging up in the polls. 

In a hypothetical scenario where Kennedy rose to 25 percent or 30 percent in the polls, questions about Biden’s age and political vulnerability would grow much sharper.

Bill Carrick, a veteran Democratic strategist, urged the Biden campaign to take the high road and treat Kennedy as if he barely exists.

“I think they should ignore him. I just don’t think there’s any point in [engaging] in it. He’s not the least bit of a threat to President Biden,” Carrick said.

“For card-carrying Democrats, their biggest concern is beating Trump, and the only way to do it is Biden,” Carrick added.

But others warn that there are dangers in that approach.

“You can’t let cancers metastasize,” said Bakari Sellers, a CNN commentator and former Democratic state representative in South Carolina.

Sellers was scathing of Kennedy, whom he called a “caricature.” Referring to his storied family history as the nephew of former President Kennedy and the son of the former attorney general whose name he bears, Sellers added:

“He is probably the best example of an apple falling from the tree and rolling into a whole other orchard — parroting Putin talking points and so on. He is not John, he is not Robert, and he is more associated with the likes of [podcaster] Joe Rogan and Elon Musk than he is with James Clyburn or Hakeem Jeffries.”

But Kennedy’s willingness to engage with figures like Rogan has its own political advantages. Social media lit up in the wake of Kennedy’s recent appearance on Rogan’s podcast. Rogan offered scientist Peter Hotez a charity donation of $100,000 if he would debate Kennedy on the vaccine question.

Hotez has so far declined. The back-and-forth has raised bigger questions about the merits of such public debates, especially between a respected scientist and someone who has frequently been criticized for trafficking in misinformation.

Either way, the furor delivers even more oxygen to Kennedy’s campaign. 

This, in turn, is why some Democrats think ignoring him is not a workable strategy.

“You have to get in behind the scenes and take him apart,” said New York-based Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf.

Sheinkopf argued that a frontal attack on Kennedy from the Biden campaign would backfire since “it would fuel him and fuel his followers who are drawn to his populist streak.”

Attacks from groups that are not directly affiliated with Biden might be more effective, Sheinkopf contended.

There is an abundance of ammunition that could be used against Kennedy, his critics note. In an early 2022 rally against vaccinations, Kennedy suggested the situation in the United States at the time was worse than when the Nazis were on the march in Europe — remarks that even his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, called “reprehensible and insensitive.” 

Kennedy later apologized for referencing Anne Frank in the remarks.

In another interview, Kennedy claimed that chemicals in drinking water were feminizing boys and causing “sexual dysphoria.”

A photo was widely disseminated on Twitter on Monday of Kennedy with Roger Stone and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, two of the most controversial of all the allies of former President Trump. 

The implication, plainly, was that Kennedy was being used by the right, willingly or otherwise, to hurt Biden.

Stone, in a Monday afternoon tweet, denied that was the case. 

The photo, he wrote, “proves nothing whatsoever. I have met [Kennedy] once in my life at a conference. I did not urge him to run, nor am I advising his campaign. This is a crazy left-wing conspiracy theory.”

Despite that, some Democrats cited the photo as the kind of ingredient that would prove useful in pushing back against a Kennedy candidacy.

“All you’ve got to do is let people know: These are his friends,” Democratic strategist Jerry Austin told this column. 

The concern about Kennedy’s candidacy and its political impact stretches beyond Democrats to others who are worried about the possibility of Trump returning to office.

“He can soften, weaken and damage Biden for a general election,” said former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), who has become a fierce Trump critic.

But Walsh argued that, although there was an appetite on the left as well as the right for what he termed “cranks and conspiracy theories,” such a figure was less likely to come close to winning the Democratic nomination.

Despite the danger Kennedy’s poses, Walsh argued, “Team Biden is better advised to just ignore him completely.”

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.