No, Max Burns, Kennedy Didn’t Quit the Democratic Party. It Quit Him.

By Liam Sturgess, The Kennedy Beacon

Recently in The Hill, veteran Democratic strategist Max Burns opined that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has “traded his principles for ballot access” in his independent presidential campaign. But Burns’ political analysis reveals increasing panic within the Democratic establishment as it struggles with an aging president for whom enthusiasm is woefully lagging. 

Contrary to Burns’ assertions, Kennedy’s independent campaign embodies the classic Democrat model – one the Party abandoned years ago.

Burns claims that Kennedy’s effort to seek the Democratic nomination “flopped,” ignoring how the Democratic National Committee and its allies blocked Kennedy in the primary when he began to outperform in South Carolina. As Kennedy’s support in New Hampshire surged, the DNC virtually eliminated its primary and delegates. This was in violation of New Hampshire state law, as reported by the Associated Press. 

Burns wants us to believe in a Democratic Party that has the same values of Kennedy’s father and uncle, but what he conveniently forgets to tell readers is that the current Democratic party has traded its values and become a party controlled by neoconservative war mongers. RFK Jr. has not “compromised” his values. It’s the Democratic Party that’s changed.

Burns accuses Kennedy of being “willing to make deals with anyone” – read, Donald Trump – “in order to obtain power,” despite Kennedy clearly stating, in the New York Post article that Burns cites, that he turned down the Trump ticket. Burns insinuates that Kennedy lacks his uncle’s “willingness to speak truth to power even in the most challenging circumstances,” ignoring the fact that both the Biden and Trump administrations censored him for uttering inconvenient truths. 

Burns further distorts reality to fit his narrative by asserting that Kennedy has abandoned his environmentalism, and that it’s “difficult to detect any trace” of the “respected environmental activist” in his presidential campaign. In reality, Kennedy has made the environment one of his leading issues. A cursory review of his social media, events, and platform reveals Kennedy’s frequent and in-depth discussions about environmental crises, his commitment to fighting pollution, and his promotion of regenerative agriculture. Conversely, the Biden administration has largely ignored the ongoing crisis in East Palestine, Ohio, following an uncontrolled burn of spilled toxic chemicals.

Protecting the environment remains a high priority for Kennedy, a fact obscured in Burns’ analysis through sleight of hand – hyper-focusing on the term “climate change,” noting the absence of this specific wording on the campaign website. Kennedy doesn’t tow the line of the increasingly ambiguous climate orthodoxy. He opts for more precise language to engage the issues, such as the regulatory capture of the Environmental Protection Agency by Big Oil, Big Chemical, and Big Ag – an incontrovertible reality that Burns waves off as a “conspiracy theory.” One of Kennedy’s most famous victories is over Monsanto, whose favorable treatment from the EPA has brought the agency to court as recently as April 2023. According to Burns, these “conspiracy theories” and “junk science” should not be given a platform, First Amendment be damned.

Indeed, America is a country defined by the right to free speech, which allows Burns to offer his opinion without obstruction. As an outspoken ally of the Democratic Party, Burns currently wields a very loud microphone – but volume alone does not produce credibility. 

According to his profile in DC Inno, Burns started his career in the US House of Representatives, which saw him “bouncing from legislative offices to think tanks.” He then joined Facebook in its key early days in 2010, where he was involved in “introducing the platform to Congress, the White House, [and] federal agencies, and showing them how to use it as part of their public outreach.” This relationship between the government and Facebook is the focus of multiple high-profile lawsuits, including with RFK Jr. as plaintiff, alleging a systematic campaign of censorship enforced by the public-private partnership that Burns boasts participation in.

Burns’ ardent defense of the Democratic establishment is understandable, since he has led “various local leadership committees for local branches of the Democratic Party.”

As displayed on his LinkedIn profile, Burns was hired in August 2012 at the Glover Park Group (GPG), a communications consulting firm founded by four “well-connected Democrats” from the Bill Clinton administration. While Burns was employed at GPG, the firm provided funding to the Center for American Progress, a think tank founded by notorious Democratic Party operative John Podesta. GPG has also sponsored the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration, a congressionally chartered nonprofit that engages in “public-private partnerships” to support the FDA’s regulatory activities, as described by the Canadian Covid Care Alliance. Pfizer is a long-time client of GPG’s, as reported by The Washington Post back in 2004. OpenSecrets reveals that AstraZeneca and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance were also clients during Burns’ tenure at the firm. Several of GPG’s founders went on to work for the DNC and Facebook.

Burns also worked as communications director at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the eponymous nonprofit created in honor of RFK Jr.’s father. As seen in the articles Burns features in his portfolio, he worked closely alongside RFK Jr.’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, who serves as the organization’s president. She was among the four members of RFK Jr.’s family who vocally opposed her brother’s presidential candidacy, and his choice to move on from the Democratic Party and challenge Joe Biden. 

Burns’ current gig is as founder and chief strategist of Third Degree Strategies, a PR firm focused on crisis communications – something the Democratic Party will continue to need as election day grows closer. Without a doubt, this Democratic Party is a different beast than the one Kennedy grew up in.

Americans are increasingly familiar with how the Democratic Party elites attack the party’s most principled members. The party gatekeepers refused to give Kennedy a lane, giving him no choice other than to run as an independent in order to stay true to his family’s principles of speaking truth to power. When corrupt forces are aligned against you, Mr. Burns, there’s no shame in forging a new path.