New polling from The New York Times and Siena College showed Tuesday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may have a surprisingly outsized impact on the 2024 presidential election.
No, the polls don’t show him winning, but they do indicate he could take millions of votes away from both presumed Democratic incumbent nominee President Joe Biden and presumed Republican nominee Donald Trump, walking away with 24% of the vote alongside Biden’s 33% and Trump’s 35%.
“That’s right: Robert F. Kennedy is in a three-way race with Trump and Biden — which is definitely the worst three-way a Kennedy has ever been a part of,” Sarah Silverman snarked while guest hosting “The Daily Show” Tuesday evening.
The Comedy Central news program then broke down why RFK Jr.’s place in the race is… troubling. An aggregated clip of MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace perhaps summed it up best:
“RFK Jr. is an overwhelming source of misinformation and disinformation,” Wallace said. “A purveyor of vile conspiracy theories and fake science. He’s linked chemicals in our water supply to gender dysphoria, antidepressants to school shootings and insisted COVID vaccines were a tool to control people via microchips.”
“If he gets 24% in the election, it would be the best showing for a third-party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt, and because RFK is anti-vax, it would be the best showing for polio since Franklin Roosevelt,” Silverman deadpanned.
The comedian then riffed on the independent presidential candidate’s lineage to the late former President John F. Kennedy Jr. and his father, Robert F. Kennedy.
“On one hand, it could be historic. America could set the record for hiring the world’s oldest nepobaby,” Silverman said. “On the other hand, this guy is crazy. And he’s not like Trump crazy where it’s obvious right away. I mean, as soon as you see Trump, you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I know this, this is a broken man.’ RFK is so boring you got to be talking for 20 minutes before you realize he just said pesticides make people trans. Wow, kill bugs and be your authentic self. Sign me up!”
And it wasn’t always this way. RFK Jr. used to have a positive reputation that preceded him, and Silverman even admitted Tuesday that she used to like him “when he was the clean water guy.”
“Why couldn’t we get that RFK? Getting this RFK is like getting Giuliani post-sideburn drip,” she joked before concluding:
“Bottom line, this is not good. You’ve got one candidate who doesn’t believe in vaccines and two others who were alive when they were invented.”
Watch the full segment from “The Daily Show” in the video above.
