Environmental Group That Used to Support RFK Jr. Asks Him to End Presidential Bid: ‘Honor Our Planet, Drop Out’

AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lost the support of his own family this week when several members of the Kennedy family joined President Joe Biden to formally endorse his reelection. Now, an environmental group that Kennedy spent nearly three decades working for asked him to “honor our planet, drop out.”

CNN reported that the National Resources Defense Council, for whom Kennedy served as a lawyer for 28 years, was planning to release a full-page print ad on Sunday in several battleground states — Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina — asking him to drop his bid for the presidency, citing the votes he was taking away from Biden which could lead to another term in the White House for former President Donald Trump, whom they call “the single worst environmental president our country has ever had.”

A copy of the ad, which was obtained by CNN, read as follows:

Earth to RFK Jr.,

We have spent our careers fighting to protect the planet and its people. As current and former leadership and board members of the NRDC Action Fund, as well as former colleagues of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., we have one message for him: Honor our planet, drop out.

In nothing more than a vanity candidacy, RFK Jr. has chosen to play the role of election spoiler to the benefit of Donald Trump – the single worst environmental president our country has ever had.

For years, RFK Jr. has been spinning anti-vaccination conspiracy theories, denying science, and putting lives at risk.

Sadly, his dangerous candidacy is only about spreading misinformation and growing his brand. He can’t win.

The New York Times also reported that several other environmental groups joined together for an open letter that read in part:

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is not an environmentalist. He is a dangerous conspiracy theorist and science denier whose agenda would be a disaster for our communities and the planet.

He may have once been an environmental attorney, but now RFK Jr. is peddling the term “climate change orthodoxy” and making empty promises to clean up our environment with superficial proposals. The truth is, by rejecting science, what he offers is no different than Donald Trump.

Kennedy responded during a phone call with the Times on Thursday: “President Biden does not need my help to lose to Donald Trump.”