He draws crowds full of republicans, democrats and independents all in one place. So what thats telling me is that americans want to work together. They want someone to bring them together and make this country better. So thats what bobby is ready to do. He is ready to fight for the working class american because hes been doing it all his life. Ive been watching him do it. Matter of fact, hes a environmental attorney and for decades hes been fighting against these corrupt corporations that were stealing from the working class american. I was in San Francisco when bobby and his law firm stood up against montanto monsanto on behalf of one man, a man named mr. Johnson who was a groundskeeper at a school, and he would wear roundup weed killer on a tank on his back and do his job, kill the weeds, spray the lawn and he started developing lesions on his back. He reached out to me and thought monsanto and told them what was happening, could this possibly be caused by roundup and monsanto never responded. So mr. Johnson went back to work. He kept using the roundup. He got sicker and sicker, and developed nonhodgkins lymphoma, and bobby and his law firm sued monsanto and proved that monsanto did indeed see these messages. They saw what mr. Johnson had said and how he had reached out, and they didnt respond because they were making too much money. So bobby has stood up for the little guy, for the average person who is just trying to make a living. Hes been doing that all his life. They won the monsanto suit which of course yeah. And then that of course opened up to other suits because roundup is killing people. So one thing i know about bobby is if he hears that cant be done or you cant do it, it only sparks a fire in him and it makes him fight harder. So im here to tell you that bobby is ready to fight for you guys. Are you ready for him to fight for you . Ok. One more time. I just want to hear it one more time. Are you really ready for Bobby Kennedy . [cheers and applause] ok. Ok. All right. Listen, i know you didnt come here to hear me talk. Thank you. One person. Two people. Thank you p. I am not going to make you wait any longer. The moment youve been waiting for, were all dying to hear from bobby, so why dont you please make a lot of noise and welcome the next president of the United States of america, Robert Kennedy jr. [cheers and applause] robert hey. [crowd chanting] robert thank you, cheryl, for this beautiful introduction and for making me the happiest person man alive, the most unbelievable wife. I want to thank the other members of my family that are here, particularly amaryl as amaryllis who has done such a good job comanaging the campaign and my son bobby and jackie and becky and Anthony Shriver and carolina and Jesse Shriver and the other members of my family are here. Rob jeter i cheryl is a huge, huge football fan and the real reason we came to philadelphia is to watch the eagles play yesterday. I want to thank lewis for giving the invocation today. Lewis is a tribal elder of the sioux in south dakota, my father, about a week before he died, my father spent a full day at the lakota reservation at pine ridge. There was a crowd of 20,000 people waiting for him and in rapid city, and one of his local aides said to him, we better get to rapid, theyve been waiting for hours and he added that the indians dont vote. My father looked at him very sharply and said you dont know who your candidate is. And he saw a entire family of sioux living in the burned out hole of an automobile and he wept. Its one of the only times in his lifetime that i heard of him crying. And that word of his tears swept across the reservation and on election day june 5, 1968, the last day of his life, he won the state of south dakota with the help of the sioux. I go back back to pine ridge as often as i can and almost every time i go there, the elders share that story with me and they tell me that it was the highest turnout in the history of the nation. And that my father got nearly 100 of the vote. There were only three votes that day that were tallied against him and the elders always close that story by saying were still looking for those guys. Its a hopeful sign for the country we celebrate indigenous day and shows were ready as a country were ready as a nation it shows our country is now ready to explore and tell each other the untold histories of those people who have previously languished on the margins. But today as the corrupt powers have overtaken our government, the ranks of the dispossessed have swelled so they not only include indigenous americans and black americans and hispanic americans, they include tens of millions of people who live paycheck to paycheck in financial desperation. The dispossessed includes legions of the chronically ill and the addicted, the depressed, the 80 of our country that cannot afford a middle class lifestyle. A rising tide of discontent is now swamping our country. Theres danger in this discontent and theres also opportunity and promise. The danger is that the democrats, the demagogues had a hijack towards fashionism and will use it as a pretense or attack on an an existential enemy in the long pipelines of continuous wars. The biggest danger weve all seen on a daytoday basis is theyll direct that discontent against each other. As Abraham Lincoln observed quoting jesus christ, a house divided cannot stand. A polarized nation is easy for corrupt powers to manipulate and control and strip the wealth, its freedoms, its equity, its dignity, those are the dangers. So what is the promise . The promise is of reunion. We are told today that our nation is hopelessly divided, but i found Something Different as i travel this country, the most hateful voices, of course, are always the loudest, but there are a lot of quiet americans who are looking at disgust and with vitriol the namecalling and the venom. They want it to end. They want us to get along. They want to end you know, those loud, hateful controversies, obscure the vast areas of agreement. Most of us agree, for example, we should take care of our veterans. Most of us agree that we should seek peace abroad instead of war. We all agree teachers should receive decent salaries and respect. We all agree that housing should be affordable and corporations should pay their fair share. We all agree that we want a clean environment, that we want wholesome communities for our children. And yet these universal yearnings stand alongside a broad agreement that our country has lost its way. Americans are weary, theyre tired of the culture war, the phony slogans, the politicians who blame who use the partisan blame game and divide us against each other and keep us all at each others throats. And people expect the divisions are deliberately orchestrated and getting us and that getting us to hate each other is all part of the scam. And theyre fed up with being fooled, theyre ready to take back power. [cheers and applause] robert theres no other explanation for the enthusiasm i see every day as more and more people flock to this campaign. Sometimes it gives me goose bumps. Their minds may tell them the situation is hopeless, that the elites are too entrenched, that the corruption is too deep. But there are others who say otherwise. I know what because i meet scores of people every day, even those in the most difficult circumstance who have not given up on america. Ive walked picket lines in los angeles with Hotel Workers who live in their cars because they cant afford rent and visited clinics along georgia where families get their medical care in the back of a bus. Ive planted gardens in the food deserts in cleveland. Ive sat among Migrant Children at the border. Ive met social workers and doctors in yuma who treat these immigrants with kindness and heartbreaking generosity as if they were members of their own families. Ive walked i walked the fields with farmers who cant drink from their own wells because theyre poisoned by their pesticided. Ive sat at kitchen tables in pennsylvania with parents working every hour that god gives them to afford a home of their own, only to get outbid by a hedge fund with a cash offer at the last minute. Ive worked with veterans who serve honorably in foreign wars and come home to a country that is bankrupted by those wars. Ive eaten with Small Business owners who had to board up their dreams as amazon cashed in. Ive talked with moms from nevada to New Hampshire who lie awake at home juggling unpayable bills, choosing between gasoline and groceries. I met Senior Citizens who cut their pills in two to stretch out the prescriptions. And i pulled dead fish from rivers that are clogged with chemical runoff and waste. And ive read stories to children who are devastated by chronic disease. It can all look pretty dark. We seem to be cycling from despair to rage and back to despair again. The country is sitting on top now of a powder keg. Americans are angry at being left out, left behind, swindled, cheated, and belittled by a smug elite that has rigged the system in its favor. Bobby Bobby Bobby BobbyBobby Bobby Bobby bobby bobby ive also seen hope. Ive traveled millions of american miles across my career, and to quote ten i son, i am part of all i have met, for 40 years americans across the country have fortified me with their courage and their idealism, but this year i have witnessed an upwelling of optimism that ive never seen before. Optimism is the same thing as denial. We have to acknowledge the truth. We do face a decaying infrastructure and record levels of suicide, depression, addiction, chronic disease. We do face an entrenched political corruption and an inequality of wealth not seen in a century. But the good news is that people, like yourselves, are finally fed up. Something is stirring in us. It doesnt have to be this way. People stop everywhere in airports, hotels, on the street, and they remind me that this country is ready for a historymaking change. Theyre ready to reclaim their freedom, their independence. And thats why im here today, im here to declare himself an independent candidate [applause] independent candidate for president of the United States. Thats not all. Im here to join you in making a new declaration of independence for our entire nation. We declare independence from the corporations that have hijacked our government. And we declare independence from the wall street, from big tech, from big pharma, from big ag, from the military contractors and their lobbyists. And we declare independence from the mercenary media that is here to fortify all of the corporate orthodoxies from their advertisers and to urge us to hate our neighbors and to fear our friends. And we declare independence from the cynical elites who betray our hope and who amplify our divisions. And finally, we declare independence from the two Political Parties. And the corrupt that dominate them and the entire rigged system of rancor, of rage, of corruption, of lies that has turned government officials into indentured servants for their corporate bosses. We declare independence from these corrupting powers because they are incompatible with the inalien able rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and the people who sat in that hallway ratified for us in 1776. Now we can guard how can we guard life when the forprofit corporations have captured the public agencies that are supposed to protect us . How can we enjoy liberty when a surveillance state seeks to hide the truth and to quash us . How can we pursue happiness when debt and low wages imprison so many of our nations families . And so i come here today to declare our independence from the tyranny of corruption, which robs us of affordable lives, our belief in the future, and our respect for each other. But to do that, i must further declare my own independence. Independence from the Democratic Party. [applause] and from all other Political Parties. I havent made this decision lightly. Its very painful for me to let go of the party of my uncles, my father, my grandfather, and both of my greatgrandfathers, honey fitzgerald and patrick, who was the first irishcatholic, and patrick kennedy, who was a ward boss in boston. They launched our political dynasty over a hundred years ago. But my sacrifice is nothing compared to the risk our Founding Fathers took when they signed the declaration of independence 247 years ago. They knew that if the revolution failed, every last one of them would be hanged. They chose to place everything on the line. When john adams put his pen down after adding his signature to the declaration, he turned to those present, and he said to them, sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, from this day on, i am with my country. Im going to make [applause] im going to make that same pledge to you today, so that i can stand before you as every leader should stand before you, free of partisan allegiance, free from the back room deals, servant only to my conscience, to my creator, and to you. Today we turn a new page in american politics. There have been independent candidates in this country before, but this time is going to be different. Because this time, the independent is going to win. [applause] threequarters of americans believe that President Biden is too old to govern effectively. President trump faces multiple civil and criminal trials. Both of them have Favorability Ratings that are deep in negative territory. Thats what twoparty politics has given us, and thats why we need to pry loose from the hammer lock of the corrupt powers in washington, d. C. , and make this nation ours again. But theres a sacrifice that everyone, including myself, have to make if were going to reunite america. Were going to have to surrender the kind of political addiction that is ultimately the root of all of these divisions. And thats the addiction to taking sides. Our nations renewal is going to begin when we start to treat each other with respect. Only then will we be able to step outside our tired, stuck debates. We can ask the questions that nobody thought to ask. We can discover solutions that were right in front of our face. We will listen, not just to the other side, but to those who are apart from any side. And a twosided conflict, both parties have a kind of mutual dependency. Each side depends on the other to define themselves as good guys in contrast to the other side, who, of course, are the bad guys. Well, if youre a team good, then youll do anything no matter how unscrupulous to defeat team evil. And thats why weve seen both parties sacrificing their core values and the foundational can ons of democracy in an allout struggle for power. Any means justifies the end. The result is that we ourselves become evil if we participate in that battle. The child whos obsessed with hating a parent becomes that parent. As i surrendered my attachments to taking sides over the past six months, ive been able to listen with new ears to people with whom i disagree and to see solutions that would otherwise have been invisible. Ill give you an example. Six months ago, i thought that an open border was a humanitarian policy and that if you were for sealing the border, it meant that you were probably a xenophob and he maybe a racist. I was wrong. How did i learn i was wrong . It wasnt just that i listened. It wasnt just that i listened to the other side. It was when i actually visited the border and listened to people who werent on either side. My views changed as i spoke to Border Patrol officers, the local officials, the local sheriffs, aid workers, and the migrants themselves. I saw no one party has a moan only reply on wisdom, and none of the simplistic area actives actually contain the whole truth. My promise to you as president is that im going to do this on every issue. Im going to listen to stakeholders [applause] im going to listen to the stakeholders from every side and beyond any side. Im going to uphold my moral convictions, of course, absolutely. And ill hold my own opinions lightly. Ill look at the evidence and the arguments, and ill choose not the easy pad, not the established pad, but the right path. And make an independent run for president , i take inspiration from the one other president who did not have a political party, and that president was george washington. [applause] in his farewell address, washington issued a prescient warning about the disastrous potential of party politics. Inevitably he said Political Parties will be taken over by a cunning ambitious, unprincipled minority who will serve the interests of the party rather than the interest of the nation and usurp for themselves the reins of government. Washingtons dire prediction has certainly come true. I intend to rest the reigns of both parties and return power to the American People. I do know youve all heard the pundits who say, who have been lamenting, how do we get young people to engage again in politics . I see so many young people who have now inflamed with my campaign, and the answer to that question is that thats the wrong question to ask. The president ive found is not the young people. The problem is what my generation, the old people have done to politics. The millennials and gen z are repelled by the toxicity, the pettiness, and more than anything else, by the dishonesty. They want authenticity. And no, the problem is the politics. Im committed to inaugurating a politics that is worthy of their engagement. I want to share with you a hopeful sign. Im proud to say that my supporters include both prolifers and prochoicers. They include climate activists and climate skeptics. They include vaccinated and unvaccinated. They include people who for years have been on both sides of the culture war. Why . Because more and more americans are beginning to understand is that for the good of our country, one cannot insist on getting ones way on every issue. They understand that people can disagree and still respect each other. You can be prochoice and not think that prolifers are womenhating zealots. You can support Second Amendment and not think that gun control advocates are totalitarians who hate freedom. This is what i mean from independents. Its more than being independent of two existing parties. Its also independence from tribal thinking. Its freedom from the reflex of having to take sides. Instead, instead of asking people which side are you on, im going to ask people what do you care about . What do your children need . What is it like to be you . What do you love . Because our country is never going to heal if the formula, the only formula is for onehalf of the population to vanquish the other half in a pitched battle. Im happy to say that the old political alignments are dissolving. Right and left. The right and left are all mixed up anyhow. It used to be that Democratic Party opposed censorship. It was the Democratic Party that wanted to rein in the military and the c. I. A. It was the Democratic Party that fought corporate influence. Remember when wall street and big corporations all supported the republicans . Well, who is the liberal now and whos the conservative . Who is the left . Who is the right . These labels make less and less sense. And out of habit we still group ourselves around the empty husks of those old alignments and thread bare idollologies. Now that habit is breaking down. Thats why half the electorate no longer identifies with any political party, and 63 of americans want an independent to run for president. Of course, the outer structures of the party still dominate the political landscapes, but theyre hollowed out from within like a Building Full of termites. What new structures might emerge from the lines . What is politics going to look like when its no longer us versus them . American democracy should be more than just picking between two candidates anointed by shadow institutions. Big oil from the republicans, big tech funds the democrats. Big pharma and the military contractors make sure to give to both. Instead of two parties, we have this kind of uniparty, a twoheaded monster thats constantly bickering with itself as it leads us all over a cliff. And at the bottom of that cliff is the destruction of our country. Neither party has offered any kind of meaningful resistance to the endless wars and have sucked on out our wealth and slaughtered our youth. Neither has done anything to reverse the erosion of the american middle class. Beth of them are powerless to rein in our exploding deficits and contributed equally to the corporate giveaways, to the corruption in washington, and to the election of a surveillance state. There are good and honest people within both parties even in their leadership, but the system itself is hopelessly corrupt. Now, let me tell what you an independent presidency will look like. Because im independent of the military contractors, ill be able to pursue a Foreign Policy that puts peace and diplomacy first. And because im independent of wealthy donors, ill be able to close the loopholes and giveaways that bloat our budget. And because im independent of wall street, ill be able to rescue debt fors instead of the banks during the next financial crisis. And because im independent of big polluters, ill be able to clean up our soil, our water, our air, and protect our Purple Mountain majesty. And because im independent of corporations, ill be able to unravel the corporate capture of our regulatory agencies. Because im independent of both Political Parties, ill be able to enact old policies that are outside of the partisan conversation. Let me be clear though. Being independent of the two Political Parties does not mean making them my enemy. Dogmatic opposition is just as much a form of dependency as dogmatic loyalty. As president , im going to work with officials from both parties who want to join me in serving our nation rather than exploiting and searching for partisan political advantage. Every president enters office promising to unite the nation, to work with people from the other party across the aisle. None of them ever does it. They cant. Theyve already closen a side. Well, im not going to have that problem. Im going to build coalitions from both sides of the aisle. What that means is that members of congress will start working together across party lines in ways that we barely think of a generation. My uncle, senator edward kennedy, my uncle teddy, has his name on more pieces of legislation than any senator in United States history. Did he that, he accomplished that because of his capacity to reach across the aisle. During weekend in cape cod, my uncle would bring home people who were his political rivals, who were orrin hatch, john kasich, harry byrd, people who were terrible, for example, on my issue of the environment. I looked at those people and saw darth vader, and i would say to teddy, why are you making these friendships . And he said because i have a lot of Common Ground with them. They know the difficulties of living like a politician, and he always said to me, as much as i love our country, they love our country the same. We all believe in our country. We need to be able to talk to each other. And that allowed him to become the most productive senator in United States history. I want to do the same thing with my presidency. [applause] im going to tell thaw because of that its going to be very hard for people to tell whether my administration is left or right. Is it right wing to support small farms . Is it right or left to pull our nation back from the brink of a war with russia . Is it right or left to implement a tamperproof election system that also guarantees that everyone has a right to vote . The two parties are often blind to commonsense solutions. The formula has left them unable to govern. Practically every year we do what we did two weeks ago or a week ago, which is to come this far from defaulting on a government shutdown. Thats the most obvious example of the paralysis of the twoparty system. The system runs on inertia, year after year, decade after decade. Its like a runaway bus filled with teenagers fighting about who should take the wheel, and they ultimately learn that whoever the driver is, theyre all obeying a g. P. S. With a program thats written by lobbyists and corrupt corporate insiders. Im not going to just take the wheel, im going to reboot the g. P. S. You know whos going to set the new destination . You are. Because as ive traveled this country, ive listened to you, and i know what your hopes are for the future, and i know your eye dealism. Together were going to set the g. P. S. Toward the Promised Land, the promise that Jonathan Winthrop gave us, the great puritan leader when he stood on the deck and said, and pointed to the very dent landscapes that no european had ever seen, and he said were going to build here a Promised Land, a city on a hill, a lamp to all the other nations in the world, an exemplary nation. And we came close to fulfilling that destiny in the years after world war ii. You know, when the king and queen look over the balance strayeds of their castle and they see all of their subjects fighting each other, they go back to the banquet room, and they pop champagne corks, because they know as long as were all feuding with each other, that nobody is coming over the castle walls. So this hatred we have for each other is orchestrated. And what my job is during this campaign and entering my presidency is to unify americans, and were all going to go over the castle wall together. [applause] and were going to take back our country. Moses, during the end of his life, he had brought the jewish people from slavery in egypt across the red sea, promising them they would get to a Promised Land. But 40 years later, he was 120 years old, and they had not found the Promised Land. And the jewish people were angry at him, and they said to him, why did you bring us out of egypt . We were better off in egypt. Moses went to god and said theyre going to stone me, and to do took him up to the top of the mountain, and he let him look over the river jordan, and he showed him the land of cain and the Promised Land, and he said you cant lead them there, they need to get there on their own, but you brought them up to the edge, but the people need to get there on their own. And he warned them, they cant waiver from left or the right. They have to go forward. Martin luther king, the night before he died, recalled that without mentioning the story, but to this the people, ive been to the mountaintop. Ive seen the Promised Land. I know what it looks like. And i may not get there with you, but youre going to get there. But you have to get there yourselves. The people have to decide to take back the power in this country. And im no moses or Martin Luther king, but i am part of a movement where we are determined as the American People to go back and reach that Promised Land again, and i do know what it looks like, because ive seen, ive had glimpses of it during my lifetime. I know its an america with a prosperous middle class, where if you work hard, if you play by the rules, you can finance a home, you can raise a family, you can take a summer vacation. You can put something aside for your retirement. I know that its a place where we dont have to choose between Economic Prosperity and environmental protection. I know its a place where our children will have the same opportunities for dignity and enrichment and prosperity and good health. As the communities that our parents gave us. I know its a place where every american enjoys the right to vote, and everybody has absolute faith in our electoral system has integrity and its the best in the world. I know its a place with incorruptible regulatory agencies. When he was a kid, the f. D. A. , the c. I. A. , or the f. D. A. , the e. P. A. , the n. I. H. Were the Gold Standard regulatory agencies in the world. The other nations in europe and latin america based their regulations on what our Regulatory Agency said. They were absolutely incorruptible. They were Gold Standard science. I know that that Promised Land is a place which is a bastion for the right, enshrined in our constitution. And i know that that Promised Land is a place where america is a moral authority around the world. Its a place that promotes peace instead of war, and i know that america is possible. When we declare independence from the deadlocked party establishment. [applause] Bobby Bobby BobbyBobby Bobby BobbyBobby Bobby Bobby that is the america thats possible when we declare for instance the war machine that devours a trillion dollars a year. Thats the america thats only possible when we stop fighting each other and go over the fortress wall. And thats the america that im going to serve when i become president of the United States. Now the media pundits are going to tell thaw we dont have any chance. Theyve given me a couple of first names. One of them is long shot candidate. And they say my impact is only going to draw votes from the other candidates. The democrats are frightened that im going to spoil the election for President Biden. And the republicans are frightened that im going to spoil it for president trump. The trouble is theyre both right. My intention is to spoil it for both of them and only that inside the beltway myopia deludes them into thinking we have no chance of winning. I have seen the polls, as they wont show you. Ive sat at the kitchen tables that them dont bother to visit. Ive shaken hands with tens of thousands of invigorated americans over the past six months who are excited about a change . I can tell you our campaign has ignited a movement that has been smoldering for years, a movement to reclaim democracy, to resurrect the promise of our republic, the Promised Land, and thats the real reason that the party elites in washington and the insiders are terrified of my candidacy. They recognize an authentic challenge to their power when they see one. There have been some candidates before, but none of them who understands actually how to get the job done. Unlike president trump, ive been fighting corporate corruption and suing Government Agency for 40 years. I know how they work and i know how to clean them up, and unlike any president since 1963, i will stand up to the military industrial complex. [applause] ill bring our troops home with honor. Ill rebuild americas strength from the insideout. What really terrifies the elites, though, is not me. Its what i represent. A populist movement that defies leftright division. [applause] im merely a ship that is going to cut through the armadas of corruption, of secrecy, of lies. And unlike a small minority of Public Officials who are actually corrupt, im going to tell you the secret. I am no enemy to the people of the twoparty establishment, because guess what, they dont believe in it anymore either. Think dont believe their own posturing. They dont believe their own rhetoric. Thats why so many public figures, democrats and republicans, have told me quietly i cant support you publicly, but i really hope you win. They too want liberation from the system that has captured them. And isnt that ultimately what we all want . Liberation from a system that robs us of our wealth, our health, our hope, our prettyism, our ideals, our freedoms, and ultimately our sense of ourselves as a good and capable people. Is that kind of freedom possible . [applause] is healing our divided nation possible . Now, if we wait for someone else to literate us and unite it, no, its not possible. It becomes possible when we decide to take action ourselves. People ask me, can you win . And i want to turn that question back on us. Will our movement win . [applause] can this movement restore democracy, health, prosperity, and freedom . [applause] im not asking you to make a prediction. Im asking you to make a choice. Its going to happen if you choose for it to happen. Democracy doesnt come about as a gift from elites and authorities when they finally relent. Democracy comes when People Choose to exercise their power. So im asking you today to join me in exercising the sovereign choice of a democratic people. Are we ready to win . [applause] will woe ready to win . Are we ready to win . [applause] thats what a new declaration of independence sounds like. Remember this moment. Wove a year and one month until the election. Lets go take back our country. God bless you, and god bless the United States of america. Thank you. [applause] Bobby Bobby Bobby bobby [applause] live in New Hampshire president ial candidate tim scott m