During an Aug. 20 interview on the Impact Theory podcast, Nicole Shanahan, the running mate for 2024 independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, suggested joining forces with former President Donald Trump in a unity ticket.
The independent vice presidential candidate began by categorically denying rumors that she was in talks with the Harris campaign regarding a cabinet position or an endorsement, calling both “fake news.”
Shanahan then shifted the focus of the conversation to the Trump campaign, praising the former president for taking the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign’s concerns surrounding chronic disease and the pharmaceutical lobby “seriously.” The independent vice presidential candidate then hinted at potentially joining forces with Trump and told podcast host Tom Bilyeu:
"I think it behooves us to sit and see if we can actually make some real change, and if that is a Unity party, I think that is something that we absolutely owe to the American public to explore."
Following her proposal, Shanahan weighed the independent campaign’s options, touching on the issue of ballot access, and how the Kennedy campaign now qualifies in all 50 states. Despite this, Shanahan claimed the Kennedy campaign was suppressed due to “sabotage” from the Democrat National Convention, potentially forcing the Kennedy campaign to act as a “spoiler” candidate in November.
Signatures are required to qualify for ballot access in US elections for each US state. Source: Kennedy Campaign.
Shanahan said that the choice to drop out of the 2024 presidential campaign and join forces with former President Trump comes down to the probability of a Harris-Walz presidency. She noted that the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign takes disproportionately more votes from the GOP frontrunner than the Democrat-led campaign.
What it all means for the crypto industry
RFK Jr.’s vow to end anti-crypto policies was well-received by the crypto community. The independent presidential candidate had promised to back the US dollar with Bitcoin (BTC) in 2023 before the topic became a campaign issue leveraged by former President Trump.
However, the independent politician remains a longshot candidate for the presidency, and remaining in the race could potentially split the vote between the two pro-crypto candidates, as Shanahan suggested in the Impact Theory interview.
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