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humana. a more human way to healthcare. >> john: any minute now we expect to hear from rfk jr. in phoenix amid reports that the independent candidate could suspend his campaign today and endorsed for president trump, who is set to speak in battleground nevada next hour. >> sandra: right now you are looking live at pictures of both of those events. john, split screen right now. phoenix on the left, las vegas on the right. they are going to take it each of those places as soon as they begin speaking. >> john: welcome back to "america reports." i'm john roberts in washington and we have got a jam-packed 59 minutes and three seconds ahead of us. >> sandra: i was thinking as i was laying out the split screen, john, we've almost had a split screen every day this week.

we had live events with all the candidates, almost, and now rfk jr. to top off the week. i'm sandra smith in chicago. thanks for being with us. the dnc blasting out a memo calling rfk jr. nothing more than a "maga recruited and funded chaos agent." >> john: they like saying nasty things about him. now the big question becomes, where do rfk supporters go if he drops out? the answer could tell scoot till next crucial swing states in an election we expect will be asked are nearly tight. the fsoc's new steam coverage as we wait for rfk jr. mollie hemingway and fox news decision desk member darren schaum just ahead. >> sandra: will kick things off with griff jenkins in washington. griff, set it up for us. >> sandra, prepare yourself for the biggest event in american election history according to kennedy's running mate, mikel shanahan. while we wait to find out exactly where rfk jr. stands in the path forward, we are

learning just moments ago that nicole shanahan tweeted out that "i am not a kamala democrat, i'm not a trump republican. i'm an independent american endorsing ideas, not a person or a party. i will continue working to give a voice to the voiceless and give power back to the people." a confirmation of what we are about to find out, but whether he drops out or endorsee arizona secretary of state confirmed they process the withdrawal forms and no changes can be made to the ballot now in the state of arizona. the real unknown is how any of this could impact to the race. the national real clear politics average has harassed up by 2 over trump, 46-44. that kennedy polls at 5%. you get into the critical swing state of pennsylvania, and it

really gets tight with harris leading by three, and you got a 4% polling by kennedy. it just really points out how tight this race is and how every vote really counts. this is but a snapshot in time, but if kennedy drops out and endorses trump, the question becomes, exactly what would drive those voters to either trump or harris now? remember, kennedy waged a pretty competitive campaign for an independent candidate. he pulled over 10% at one point and made it nearly onto the debate stage with biden and trump. but his campaign is mired in multiple lawsuits, he's running short on cash, so we may hear rfk jr. talk about that, and what he deems as an effort by the democratic party to obstruct a free election because most of those lawsuits have been brought by the dnc seeking to invalidate his eligibility. later today, because the trump rally will be pretty close,

hours later, where you've got kennedy in phoenix, he is teasing about the special guest appearing at his trump rally, wl see if we hear anymore about these rumors of kennedy and any potential role in the future trump administration, and right now we just wait and watch with all eyes in phoenix, sandra. >> sandra: quite the set up, griff. thank you very much. john? >> john: let's bring in mollie hemingway, editor in chief of "the federalist" and fox news contributor. let's take a look at the numbers. let's put up the polling. in the seven battleground states, you can see that rfk jr. holes somewhere between 40-6% in those battleground states. where may those voters go if he throws his support behind donald trump? from daron shaw and our decision desk, we will talk to them a little later coming up, six in ten rfk jr. voters support donald trump. four in ten support

kamala harris. however, of that group, 57% say they don't like either trump or harris. so where does that leave us that he drops out and goes behind the eight? >> that really shows why the candidacy has had some residents. people not liking either of the main party candidates. these aren't huge numbers he has, but we know a lot about who it would benefit if he drops out, by the behavior of each party toward this candidacy. the democrats have worked really hard to keep rfk jr. away from the democrat primary. they have banned any kind of open primary or debates when they were pushing to have joe biden be the nominee. they started a pact with the sole purpose of trying to get rid of rfk jr. and remove him from any ballot. removal of third party candidates is something of a democrat past time. they did this very effectively in 2020 in wisconsin and pennsylvania, keeping jill stein off the ballot, keeping the green party after ballot, and

other third parties. so there's a reason why democrats are worried, because they do think that the rfk jr. candidacy helps trump and that his dropout mouse will help trump. >> sandra: as we wait this potential announcement here, mollie, this was former president trump in his own words talking to bret baier and martha maccallum last night about the potential endorsement and what it means. listen. >> as far as rfk, i've had a great relationship with him over the years. i respect him, he respects me. i have no idea if he's going to endorse me. i know he's got a news conference. we happen to be in the same state, arizona. we will be in the same state, but in quite different parts of the state. but it is possible we will be meeting tomorrow, and we will be discussing it. >> sandra: he seems optimistic this is coming. we also heard from him earlier this week saying he'd be honored if that endorsement did indeed come from rfk jr. for trump's camp. >> it really might be coming. i don't know what the answer to that is, that there is something there about different candidates

who are in opposition to the ruling regime. rfk jr. does have some conventionally democratic ideas on climate change and other issues, but he is a threat to the establishment. he does have a problem with how the unaccountable bureaucracy has run things. and he's been willing to say that. so regardless of whether there is an endorsement or not, there is this burgeoning movement of people who have been harmed by the ruling parties, people who have been victims of lost hair. he heard nicole shanahan eloquently about that issue, how they were having to battle lawsuits, just to be involved in a democratic process. and you had, with donald trump, of course, the loss hair against him in the attempt to bankrupt and imprison him and his family members and remove him from the ballot. you remember the supreme court ended up coming out with a 9-0 decision to knock-back those democrat efforts to remove donald trump from the ballot in states across the country. so these things unite trump voters and rfk jr. voters, this

frustration with a broken washington, d.c., that never seems to be held accountable. >> john: so the kennedy family, lifelong democrats. president kennedy, bobby kennedy, ted kennedy, and rfk jr. wanted to run as a democrat like marianne williamson who is here in your chair a little while ago. the democratic party would have none of that and everything, as you point out, to keep him off the ballot. but the kennedys have always been associated with the democrats. his running mate has plenty of democratic friends. here's what she says about the potential of rfk jr. selling his support behind trump. "my old den buddies have been fighting with frantic calls, texts, and emails. unlike ro, i wouldn't dream of airing those conversations publicly, but the message is clear. they are terrified of the idea of our movement joining forces donald trump. when i point out with the democratic party and their super pacs have done to sabotage our campaign, their response is always "but trump is worse."

she goes on to say this. "here's an idea -- stop suing us. let us debate. quit rigging the media and the polls. it is a simple formula, people. get with it." i mean, if he does this, it sounds like it's going to be a real finger in the eye to the democratic party to say, we tried to get in this debate, we tried to have a fair campaign, and you wouldn't let us, so -- i can't say it on tv. [laughter] >> the end of the democrat convention, where there was the replacement of the person chosen by the voters, with someone who never went through a primary process and succeeded in getting a boat, he never answered any questions from the media, who has never laid out policy positions, as you were just pointing out with marianne williamson. she had a full litany of her policy positions so people could evaluate whether they like her or not. so there is a lot of power in

the democrat party right now. they obviously control the corporate media. they are working hand-in-hand to bring kamala harris across the finish line. but there are a lot of americans, and they are not all republicans, but a lot of americans who say, hey, i think american voters should have a say in this process, as well. and that the media should be mediating a discussion of what the big issues are, and that someone should have to answer tough questions, not just questions from extremely friendly press allies. so that is a live issue with those rfk jr. voters, which do comprise a significant percentage of the population in various swing states. >> sandra: a little more activity in the room there. again, this has been pushed back to 2:30, we are told, but that's about 20 minutes from now. i suppose we could be surprised. anything can happen. we also don't know if this is just a statement or if he'll be taking questions. that could matter, as well. final thought? >> this has always been an issue-based campaign for rfk jr. i think he relishes the opportunity to talk about some

of those issues that motivate him, dealing with health, childhood issues, the environment. so this is a big day for him and a day were he's been struggling to get media coverage, so i imagine we will see these questions and answers. >> john: mollie, thank you so much. hope you have a great weekend. >> sandra: let's bring in daron shaw, a member of the fox news decision team and a professor at ut austin. always a pleasure. thanks for joining us. as we do await this announcement, we are told it's coming soon, tell us a little bit about what we know from our fox news polling about who rfk jr.'s supporters are. >> what is interesting is it is a moving target. in the july survey we ran, the national survey, rfk was polling at about 10%. we included cornel west and jill stein as well as the principles. his support in the august survey dipped to 6%. so he has lost some support. what has been interesting, in

july we asked supporters, what would happen if it were just a trump versus harris? they split 46-46. in the most recent survey, we ask the same question. there's fewer of them, and it looks like what has happened is those predisposed to vote for harris and the democrats moved away from rfk, because the remaining supporters basically break, as you suggested earlier, about 3-2, 60/42 trump. if you look at the numbers now, we see this also replicated in swing states. we did michigan, minnesota, pennsylvania, and wisconsin last month, and the ratio was about the same. rfk supporters were 60/40, more favorable and more likely to support trump. so is not a lot of company did math. 6% if they break 2-1, 4% to trump, 2% to harris. it's about a 1-2-point movement in the margin. in the swing states that could be really critical.

>> john: you point out also, daron, that 57% of rfk supporters didn't like either trump nor harris. so does that suggest that they could maybe swing to stein or cornel west, or maybe even just stay home and sit on their ha hands? >> i think stay home is the most likely option. we saw this with ralph nader in 2000. he was pulling 6-8%, and by election day, about half the supporters stayed home and the other half basically broke disproportionately for al gore, which really contributed to his ultimate success in that election, at least with respect to the national vote. i think you are seeing a similar dynamic now, the people within the rfk coalition kind of predisposed to vote democratic who have made their move. what remains is a group that is much less likely to vote down the trump or harris supporters. trump or harris supporters, 80-85% of them say they are extremely motivated to vote. rfk jr. supporters, about 60%

say or they really motivated to vote. i would expect a lot of them to stay home. so that 6% number could swing 2%, that might only leave 3-4% actually cast a ballot. so that further decreases the marginal swing towards trump in this particular context. >> sandra: gotcha. but fair to say, based on the changes you've seen in this race, in just the last month, daron, it looks like former president donald trump is set and in a position to benefit from rfk's withdrawal. >> i think that's right. if you peer under the hood a little bit and look at the numbers, we find is at the rfk jr. supporters really didn't like biden. it was something like 82-84% who said they wanted him out of the race in the july survey. but they also didn't particularly like trump. about 80% said they would have preferred if he had not been the republican nominee. at that point, in july, they weren't as negative towards harris, but they didn't much like her, either. in the august survey, they were

really and favorable toward harris. about 15% favorable, and about 85% unfavorable in this survey. 30% favorable to trump and about 70% unfavorable. so they don't love trump, the given those two options, you've been talking about this repeatedly throughout the season, these are people who are populist, they don't like institutions, they think the government has let them down. push comes to shove, they are probably more predisposed to vote for trump, but it's also possible they're just going to say none of these people floats my boat, i'm staying home. >> john: i want to go back to the big board of the seven swing states. and where the polls show everything is. as you pointed out, in the august survey, rfk jr.'s numbers have dropped. but here's where he stands. arizona, he's a 5.8%. nevada, 5.3%. 5% in wisconsin, 5.9% in michigan. as a watershed high for him. 4.4 in north carolina, 4.0% in

georgia. i know you are not a super computer, that crunch the numbers, if you could, based on all the data that you say you have in the swing states, based on those polls. how much do you think trump gets and how much do you think kamala harris gets? where did those numbers go? >> i think the rule of thumb is that 60% of those supporters will actually cast a ballot in this election. some of them, you couldn't even vote for rfk if you wanted to because he'll be off the ballot physically. reduce that number down to about 3%. assume they go 2-1, trump to harris. that's a 1-point margin. it sounds like nothing, but take a look at the margins we are estimating in places like wisconsin and pennsylvania and georgia and arizona. that 1% could be decisive. in a race this close, anything could be decisive, but my gut is this is not an insignificant event in that regard.

>> john: when you talk about those margins and the fact that they are small, how many votes are we talking about here? >> in a state like arizona, for instance, last time we saw -- the ultimate difference was about 12,000 votes, i think, separating the two. you assume and a lot of these places, georgia is an electorate that will be something like 4 million or 5 million votes cast or something like that. so 1%, you do the math, about 40,000 or 50,000 votes that could swing. that's consequential. that 40,000 or 50,000 votes, he did the same math and pennsylvania were other states, my guess is it'll be slightly lower than that. we are probably talking about a swing at 10,000 or 20,000. but i would have been decisive

in a couple of states last time around. so could a freak snowstorm or something, but, you know. >> sandra: looking at the ap head of this speech, they say rfk jr.'s campaign, in this court filing, he is endorsing donald trump for president. the campaign also requested he be removed from the ballot, though it was not immediately clear he was dropping out of the race. he sought to be removed from the arizona ballot and he's running as an independent. this is just crossing on the apa. quick reaction there, daron? >> i think the interesting struggle now would be the actual ballot that is going to be printed out in the states. sandra and john, if rfk is on, his supporters might go ahead and vote for him, as a protest vote. the republicans and trump want him off because they think they have this roughly 2-1 advantage, they don't want him distracting voters, they want a head-to-head comparison between harris and trump. they think they that. they see on or off the ballot? they are putting these things to bed right now. >> those of us in politics who

love data, we really appreciate you coming on and laying it all out for us. >> sandra: always great, daron. thank you. >> my pleasure. thanks, guys. >> john: following the news from va battleground states out west, and we should say trump has an event later today and arizona at which the campaign is promising "a surprise guest." who will that be a question mark >> sandra: starting to connect the dots. the big question as we report all of that, john, is what impact this announcement could have on an already unpredictable 2024 race for the white house. fox news contributor bill mcgurn will join us with his brand-new reaction to that, next.

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>> sandra: fox news alert, never a dull moment. here we are, 2:24 p.m. on the east coast, and it's the end of a busy week and you are looking live at the podium in phoenix were independent candidate rfk jr. is about to speak. and now we have brand-new reports, this off the ap moments ago, that head of the speech by robert f. kennedy jr., in a pennsylvania court filing earlier today, he is indeed endorsing former president donald trump for president. so in that filing he does say that he is endorsing trump. the campaign also requested he be removed from the pennsylvania ballot, though he was not immediately clear that he was officially dropping out of the race. that is the announcement that we are expecting moments from now. rfk jr. is set to speak there, and arizona shortly, about the present historical moment and has path forward. that's according to his campaign. as you just mentioned, hours

after this, former president donald trump will be holding a rally in neighboring glendale, and his campaign has teased he'll be joined by a special guest. can't imagine that might be. >> john: it could be kari lake, it could also be rfk. we don't know. this is part of the intrigue of politics. that is what makes it so much fun to cover. >> sandra: keep watching. white house correspondent peter doocy is live with us from chicago. how is the harris campaign reacting to all of this talk surrounding rfk jr.'s exit? >> sandra, i just talked to somebody at the dnc. for the last couple of months they've been trying to figure out how to neutralize the threat that rfk's candidacy posed to president biden and vice president harris. in this memo they say that the little support that remains is soft, split across ideologies, and disproportionately among

lower propensity voters, with no meaningful base of support and sky high negatives among democrats. rfk jr.'s threat to vp harris was neutralized. as for harris, a platform is coming together. last night she did not talk about how she will pay for her plans, and she never really touched on the proposal that we confirmed earlier this week, raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, but she did pitch this. >> instead of a trump tax hike, we will pass a middle-class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million americans. we will create what i call an opportunity economy. an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete, and a chance to suc succeed. >> the harris team can now look ahead to a debate with trump mid-september, that her next big nationally televised event should be the interview she has

promised to do by the end of this month. >> madame vice president, congratulations. >> thank you. vice president harris stayed in chicago after her big speech last night. to the best of our knowledge, she hasn't left the hotel yet today, but we do expect to see her in the next hour or so before she heads back to washington for the weekend. sandra? >> sandra: okay, peter. by the way, we are getting an update on the rfk announcement. that's now been pushed back again to 2:45 p.m. eastern time. that's about 18 minutes from now. check my math. peter, thank you. john? >> john: what is it, traffic in phoenix or something else? i don't know. let's drill down with bill mcgurn, "wall street journal" columnist and former chief speechwriter for george w. bush. maybe rfk is just seeing the level of coverage here, bill, and he just wants a little bit more of it to marinate before he gets out there.

but we know from this court filing in pennsylvania that it appears he plans to put his support behind donald trump. we have seen what his support is in the seven big battleground states, anywhere between 4-6%. what do you think it means for the race? >> the race so far has been a game of chutes and ladders. someone is up, then they go all the way down like biden dead after the debate, then back up after kamala harris is chosen, and now we have rfk jr. getting out of the race. it portends maybe another shift. we have debates ahead. so in his campaign, rfk jr. has been particularly up-and-down. when he got into the race, he said two things. i'm not in it to be a spoiler for anyone, that was his main thing. a minute to win it, not a spoiler. i think it was presumed at the beginning that he would take

votes away from joe biden, from the democrats. and the democrats have certainly behaved that way. they are the ones who sent lawyers, challenges, access to ballots, and they behaved as he was a threat to them. as you are talking about with daron, he may benefit trump more if he gets out, he has more potential trump voters than harris voters. many of the democrats supporting them earlier may have gone back to the democratic party. >> sandra: to daron's point, this is not an insignificant announcement. obviously the timing is crucial, and this is all going to happen with former president donald trump speaking just a couple hours after this right nearby. >> it's been topsy-turvy. all these different changes no one could have anticipated. and i don't diminish it. granted, it could be a tiny

number of votes, but in a lot of states, the margins last time were about 10,000 votes. so every vote -- it is a cliche that every vote counts, but it is for real and this presidential election, and no one wants to sneer at things. one other thing that no one talks about in the polls, there may be more simply for trump among the rfk contingent, but the republicans don't do nearly what the democrats did to block his access, to fight him getting on state ballots. so maybe they are inclined to try to punish the democratic party if they can, for trying to support their candidate. >> john: we were wondering if this could be a finger in the eye to the democratic party. in terms of where robert kennedy jr. voters go, if, in fact, he does endorse trump, tulsi gabbard seems to think

it's going to have a lot to do with the force with which robert f. kennedy jr. throws that support behind trump at this event. listen to it she said. >> no vote should be taken for granted. he left to make the case to his supporters about the very clear contrast between kamala harris and donald trump. he kamala harris standing for taking away our freedom, and increasingly tyrannical government, and more war congress' donald trump, who stands for peace, prosperity, and freedom. >> john: bill, if you get seven talks about his campaign and how is badly treated by the democratic party, and then says he's going to support president trump and i ask you all to come it is that same impact as him doing what chelsea gabbard suggested he needs to do? >> no, it wouldn't. the potential is there. remember -- i remember well, in 2008, i was working for president bush, and when teddy kennedy endorsed barack obama, it was a barn burner of the

speech, and really went in there. that change the course, i think, of that nomination. how he responds, if he's just talking about his issues, if he gives a speech like joe biden, "me, me, me, here's my policies," i don't think that has much of an effect. if he can show some enthusiasm and some principled reason why he is for donald trump, i think it would go better for donald trump. >> sandra: bill mcgurn on that for us. bill, thank you. >> john: thank you, bill. >> sandra: i believe the artist about 10 minutes away from this announcement. >> john: that's where we were 40 minutes ago! >> sandra: [laughs] are we taking the break? >> john: yep.

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to hunt at latest count we are about eight minutes away now from rfk jr.'s announcement. and then we have the trump event in nevada today, and a trump event not far from where rfk jr. is speaking, this evening, where he's promising a special guest. somebody emailed me a joke to say that maybe it is beyonce and taylor swift since they didn't show up last night. the peach state nearly went to president biden in 2020 and it is expected to play a pivotal role in deciding the upcoming election. jonathan serrie is live in atlanta with more. a little bit of a change of heart to make some inroads, jonathan. >> indeed, john. it appears he's trying to make amends with the governor. their rift dates back to 2020 when brian kemp resisted

mr. trump's efforts to contest president biden's narrow victory in the peach state. but the governor is letting the resources of his clinical operation to the trump campaign. >> if we turn our people out and vote from the top of the ticket on down, we are going to put georgia back in the red column for a presidential race like we did in 2020. >> sean hannity, he was very nice and he says he wants trump to end and he's going to work with me 100%, and i think we are going to have a good relationship with bri brian kemp. >> the party hopes to repeat the 2020 election cycle, that helped put not only a democrat in the white house, but turned at the state's senate seats blue. he says kamala harris' entry into the race has renewed enthusiasm among many georgia democrats, not just about voting but working for the campaign. >> if she can sustain that interest in volunteering, these are the types of people who are

going to go out in their communities and register new voters and remind those voters to turn out to vote. >> "the new york times" siena college poll taken just before the dnc shows harris narrowing trump lead in georgia, to attend the statistical margin of error. >> john: jonathan serrie for us in atlanta with the latest on that. jonathan, thank you. sandra? >> sandra: joining us now, glad to have both of you here. with fair warning that come at any moment now, robert f. kennedy jr. could be stepping up to that microphone, in which case, forgive me, we will be bailing and heading straight to that moment in phoenix. doug, what does this mean for donald trump and his ticket and your party? >> if we are talking about the endorsement here, i think it brings to rest a lot of the independents who are trying to find a place to go, and let them

come back, especially many of them who supported much of the trump agenda, that they now have a place and they know it's not with vice president harris. georgia is a narrative that keeps in the media's mind because of what happens in 2020. brian kemp has a well-funded organization he can put out and help, and this has always been a part. he said he wants her republicans win and he said it was donald trump last night. and donald trump has reciprocated in kind. you will see a much more focused georgia. i still think georgia is trump's to enact, and he will end, but harris needs to bring it back a little closer. but georgia has never been one of the states with a wide margin in the last years anyway. >> john: it wasn't long ago that trump was down there in georgia and ripped camp again. it's interesting to see this reproach meant now. >> i think he is realizing georgia's religion play for democrats and kamala harris will make a strong run at it.

he realizes that being enemies with the republicans popular governor was not good politics given the last time was his full-throated endorsement of herschel walker, and that didn't go too well. so i think he's learning from his mistakes and trying to correct them. i don't know that it's going to work. i imagine democrats will run a lot of the donald trump quotes about brian kemp to target moderate republican voters, to remind them what he thought of their governor in the past. so i think georgia, like north carolina, arizona, michigan, pennsylvania, will be one or 2-point races, and the team with the best ground game will pull it out. >> sandra: and we are left wondering who that is, doug. >> i don't think so. you've got a very specific trump organization and other congressional districts, and democrats, as well. but the trump team is focused on getting the voters we saw in 2016, and others who have been the rare voters who don't vote as often, those infrequent

voters who support the america first agenda. one of the things i will say here is that they may try to run ads saying what donald trump has said about brian kemp, but the minute they run ads about the open border and the fact that laken riley was killed by an illegal immigrant and that they are paying more for diesel, more for gas, paying more for food, that's going make a difference in states like georgia and north carolina and others. >> john: don't forget, too, politics is all about competition, saying nasty things about each other, and then you shake hands and come together and move toward the greater goal. i mean, look at hillary clinton and a barack obama back in 2008. donald trump and ted cruz, donald trump and lindsey graham, donald trump and marco rubio. they're now getting together. so this idea of it being disingenuous that he's now getting together with kemp, maybe it is, but as you point out, it makes good politics, and who cares what you say about that in and add? if kemp is behind trump, and

trump's friends at kemp, that the only thing that really matters between now the time the first ballots are cast. >> when you bend your knee and kiss the ring for donald trump, he has a way to forget your past discretions. i think ted cruz and marco rubio and lindsey graham and mitt romney and lisa murkowski -- we can go down the list of other republicans he has had beefs with. he realized what was happening and had to make a course correction. i think kamala harris has united the democratic party. we had jeff duncan, the lieutenant governor of georgia, speaking at the convention, something i don't think any of us ever thought we would see, a republican with a prime time speaking slot at the democratic convention. so i'm confident with the race that they are going to run in georgia. stacey abrams might not be great at electing herself, but she's pretty damn good at electing other democrats. they know how to win in that state and i think they're going to help her and we will have a good race.

we are almost there? [applause] >> i'm sorry to keep everybody waiting. 16 months ago, in april of 2023, i launched my campaign for president of the united states. i began this journey as a democrat, the party my father, my uncle, the party which i pledge my own allegiance to long before i was old enough to vote. i attended my first democratic convention at the age of 6, in 1960. back then, the democrats were the champions of the constitution, of civil rights. the democrats stood against authoritarianism, against censorship, against colonialism, imperialism, and unjust wars. we were the party of labor, of the working class.

the democrats were the party of government transparency, and the champion of the environment. our party was a bulwark against big money interests and corporate power. true to its name, it was the party of democracy. as you know, i left that party in october because it had departed so dramatically from the core values that i grew up with. it had become the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big ag, and big money. when it bend and democracy by canceling the primary, the cognitive decline of the sitting president, i left the party to run as an independent. the mainstream of american politics and journalism derided my decision. conventional wisdom said that it would be impossible even to get on the ballot as an independent,

because each state poses and insurmountable tangle of arbitrary rules for collecting signatures. i would need over a million signatures, something no presidential candidate in history had ever achieved. and then ia would need a team of attorneys and millions of dollars to handle all the legal challenges from the dnc. the naysayers told us that we were climbing a glass version of mount impossible. the first thing i want to tell you is that we proved them wrong. we did it because, beneath the radar of mainstream media, we inspired a massive independent political movement. more than 100,000 volunteers sprang into action, hopeful that they could reverse our nation's decline. many worked 10-hour days, sometimes in blizzards and blazing heat. they sacrificed family time,

personal commitments, and sleep, month after month, energized by a shared vision of a nation healed of its divisions. they set up tables at churches and farmers' markets. they canvassed door-to-door. in utah and in new hampshire, volunteers collected signatures in snowstorms, convincing each supporter to stop in the frigid cold, take off the gloves, and to sign legibly. during a heat wave in nevada, i met a tall athletic volunteer who cheerfully told me that he had lost 25 pounds collecting signatures in 117-degree heat. to finance this effort, young americans donated their lunch money, and senior citizens gave up part of their social security checks. our organization collected those millions of signatures and more.

no presidential campaign in american political history has ever done that. so i want to thank all those dedicated volunteers and congratulate the campaign staff who coordinated this enormous logistical feat. your compliments were regarded as impossible. he carried me up that glass mountain, he pulled off a miracle, you achieve what all the pundits said could never be done. you have my deepest gratitude, and i'm never going to forget that. not just what you did for my campaign, you showed everyone that democracy is still possible here. it continues to survive in the press and in the idealistic human energies that still thrives beneath the canvas of

neglect and official institutional corruption. today i am here to tell you that i will not allow your efforts to go to waste. i am here to tell you that i will leverage your tremendous accomplishments, to serve the ideals that we share, the ideals of peace, of prosperity, of freedom, of health, all the ideas that motivated my campaign. i am here today to describe the path forward that you have opened with your commitment, and with your hard labors. now, in an honest system, i believe i would have won the election. in a system that my father and my uncles thrived in, a system in which open debates and fair primaries and a truly independent media, untainted by

government propaganda and censorship, in a system of nonpartisan courts and election boards. everything would be different. after all, the polls consistently showed me beating the other candidates, both in favorability and also in head-to-head matchups. but i am sorry to say that, while democracy may still be alive at the grassroots, it has become little more than a slogan for our political institutions, for our media, and for our government. and most of all for me, the democratic party. in the name of saving democracy, the democratic party set itself to dismantling it, lacking confidence in its candidate, that the candidate could win in a fair election at the voting booth. the dnc waged continual legal warfare against both president trump and myself.

each time our volunteers turned in those towering boxes of signatures needed to get on the ballot, the dnc dragged us into court, state after state, attempting to erase their work and to subvert the will of the voters who had signed those petitions. it deployed dnc-aligned judges to throw me and other candidates off the ballot, and to throw president trump in jail. it ran a sham primary that was rigged to prevent any serious challenge to president biden. then, when a predictably bungled debate performance precipitated the palace coup against president biden, the same shadowy dnc operatives appointed his successor, also without an election. they installed a candidate who was so unpopular with voters that she dropped out in 2020 without winning a single delegate.

my uncle and my father both relished debate. they prided themselves on their capacity to go toe-to-toe with any opponent in the battle over ideas. they would be astonished to learn of a democratic party presidential nominee who, like vice president harris, has not appeared in a single interview, or an unscripted encounter with voters, for 35 days. this is profoundly undemocratic. how are people to choose when they don't know whom they are choosing, and how can this look to the rest of the world? my father and my uncle were always conscious of america's image abroad, because of our nation's role as the template for democracy, a role model for democratic processes, and the leader of the free world. instead of showing us her substance and character, the dnc

and its media organs engineered a surge of popularity for vice president harris based upon, well, nothing. no policies, no interviews, no debates, only smoke and mirrors and balloons in a highly-produced chicago circus. they are, in chicago, a string of democratic speakers mentioned donald trump 147 times, just on the first day. who needs policy when you have trump to hate? in contrast, at the rnc convention, president biden was only mentioned twice in four days. i do interviews every day. many of you have interviewed me. anybody who asks gets to interview me. some days i do as many as ten. president trump, who actually was nominated and won and election, also does interviews

daily. how did the democratic party choose a candidate that has never done a n an interview or a debate during the entire election cycle? we know the answers. they did it by weaponizing the government agencies. they did it by abandoning democracy. they did it by sealing the opposition, and by disenfranchising american voter. what most alarms me isn't how the democratic party conducts its internal affairs, or runs it candidates. what alarms me is the resort to censorship and media control, and the weaponization of the federal agencies. when a u.s. president colludes with or outright coerces media companies to censor political speech, it is an attack on our most sacred right of free expression, and that is the very right upon which all of our other constitutional rights rest.

president biden mocked vladimir putin's landslide in the russian elections, observing that putin and his party controlled the russian press, and that putin prevented serious opponents from appearing on the ballot. but here in america, the dnc also prevented opponents from appearing on the ballot, and our television networks expose themselves as democratic party organs. over the course of more than a year, in a campaign where my poll number is reached, at times, in the high 20s, the dnc-aligned mainstream media networks maintained a near-perfect embargo on interviews with me. during his 10-month presidential campaign in 1992, ross perot gave 34 interviews on mainstream networks. in contrast, during this 16

months since i declared, abc, nbc, cbs, msnbc, and cnn combined give only two live interviews from me. those networks instead ran a continuous daily use of hit pieces with inaccurate, often vile pejoratives and defamatory smears. some of those same networks colluded with the dnc to keep me off the debate stage. representatives of those networks are in t this room rigt now, and i will take a moment to ask you to consider the many ways that your institutions have duty of free press to safeguard de-- democracy and challenge the party in power. instead of maintaining that posture of fear and skepticism to authority. your institutions that made

themselves government mouse pieces and you didn't alone cause the devolution of american democracy but you could have prevented it. the democrater party censorship of social media was more of an naked exercise of executive power. federal judge, upheld my injunction against president biden, calling the white house's censorship project the most egregious license of the amendment in the history of the united states of america. the previous 155 page decision, details after he took the oath of office, swearing to uphold the constitution, president biden and in his white house opened up a portal and invited the c.i.a., the f.b.i., a

censorship agency, the center of the censorship industrial complex, d.h.s., i.r.s. and other agencies to sensor me and other political disdentses on social media. even today, user who fry to post my campaign videos to facebook or youtube get messages this content violates community standards. two days after judge oty rendered his decision this week, ace book was still attaching warning labels to an on line petition, calling on a.b.c. coincludes me in the upcoming debate. they said that violates community standards, their community standards. the mainstream media, was once the guardian of the first amendment and democratic principles and has join thdz systemic attack on democracy. it also the media justifies their censorship on the grounds of combatting in information.

but governments and pressers -- oppressors don't sensor lies. they don't fear lies. they fear the truth. and that's what they sensor. and i don't want any of this to sound like a personal complaint because it is not. i -- for me, it is all part of the journey and a journey that i signed up with. but i need to make these observations because i think they are critical for us doing the thing that we need to do as citizens and of democracy to assess where we are in there country and what our democracy still looks like. and the assumptions about u.s. leadership around the globe. and are we living -- are we still a role model for democracy in the country? or have we made it a