MoveOn Executive Director Calls for Kennedy to Drop Out “for Democracy”

By Liam Sturgess, The Kennedy Beacon

Rahna Epting, executive director of progressive activist group MoveOn, has called on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to abandon his independent presidential campaign because it would be “a great thing for democracy.” 

In an interview with MSNBC’s Ali Veshi on April 5, Epting takes the counter-intuitive position that the fewer choices on the ballot in 2024, the better.

“Robert Kennedy Jr. has the same math and the same path to zero victory in the presidential election that No Labels had,” Epting told Velshi. “And No Labels just did the right thing this week, and that is a great thing for democracy. And we expect Robert Kennedy Jr. should do the same.”

No Labels, a third-party political organization, announced late last week that it was abandoning its efforts to form a ticket, citing its failure to “identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House.” 

As previously reported in The Kennedy Beacon, MoveOn is part of a “coalition of outside groups” working with the Democratic National Committee to undermine independent and third party candidates in 2024. Having successfully harassed and intimidated No Labels into submission, their attention is now squarely focused on Kennedy, as reported by New York Magazine. So far, MoveOn has published unconvincing videos labeling all nonpartisan candidates as pro-Trump, and has apparently deployed fake protestors to try to disrupt Kennedy campaign events.

Epting argues, “there is no pathway for a third-party presidential candidate in this two-party system to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.” 

She fails to mention that, with 43% of U.S. adults listed as independents, that voting bloc represents the largest swath of the electorate: only 27% identify as Republicans and 27% as Democrats. 

Still, Epting asserts that voters must choose between one of the two party-approved candidates, with independent and third-party candidates apparently being incompatible with American-style democracy. “I think it’s really dangerous third party candidates like Robert Kennedy Jr. are out there saying that they could actually win the presidency. That is not true.” 

Without elaborating on how a second Trump term would be worse than a second Biden term, Epting continues, “We’re incredibly worried that Robert Kennedy will actually swing the election to Donald Trump.”

However, Epting’s lack of enthusiasm for Biden becomes apparent throughout the interview, as she provides increasingly disjointed answers. She admits that she’s sympathetic to Democrats who oppose Biden’s fumbled diplomacy in the “catastrophic” Israel-Palestine conflict; “It’s completely understandable that folks are heading to the polls in the primary to vote ‘uncommitted’... I struggle with this challenge myself personally.”

In January, The New York Times reported that MoveOn was pouring $32 million “into an effort to generate enthusiasm” for Biden, which Epting said, “will focus more on reminders of what former President Donald J. Trump would do if he and Republicans return to power than on promoting Mr. Biden’s record in office.”

Epting’s striking lack of enthusiasm for Biden mirrors the sentiment of legacy Democrats across the country. As Biden and the Democratic Party continue to bleed voters to Kennedy—who is also picking up support from disillusioned Trump voters—Americans can expect to hear increasingly absurd arguments that suppressing voter choice is “a great thing for democracy.”

Liam Sturgess is an investigative reporter for The Kennedy Beacon. He is also a writer for the Canadian Covid Care Alliance and founder of White Rose Intelligence. He was the founding co-host and producer of the Rounding the Earth podcast, and publishes a Substack series called Microjourneys.