Robert F. Kennedy Jr - Policy stance

Fiscal Policy

RFK Jr focuses on the affordability crisis and criticizes "forever wars," suggesting a reallocation of resources to more pressing domestic issues 1.

He is critical of how neither major party addresses issues such as inflation, the national debt, and the affordability crisis, focusing instead on pressing domestic concerns like rising healthcare costs and political divisions 2.

Kennedy's fiscal policies are shaped by his stance against the current two-party system and corporate corruption, emphasizing independent policies that prioritize the best interests of the American people 3.

Abortion

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s position on abortion has evolved throughout his campaign, but he currently supports unrestricted access to abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb 4 5.

Despite some inconsistencies and changes in his stance, Kennedy ultimately supports abortion rights "up until a certain number of weeks and restricted thereafter" and has emphasized that late-term abortions should be allowed only to save the life of the mother 6 7.

Kennedy has clarified that he would not leave abortion policy up to individual states and believes it should be a woman's right to choose 8 9.

4: Kennedy’s position on abortion has shifted during the campaign, but he is closer to Democrats on the issue. Having endorsed federal restrictions on abortion after the first trimester, he later issued a statement that abortion should be unrestricted until “the baby is viable outside the womb”. View Source5: At that point, Kennedy posted a lengthy statement on social media announcing his new position: “I support the emerging consensus that abortion should be unrestricted up until a certain point. I believe that point should be when the baby is viable outside the womb. Therefore I would allow appropriate restrictions on abortion in the final months of pregnancy, just as Roe v. Wade did.” View Source6: What is “a certain point”? Kennedy hasn’t said. A few days ago, he said in a campaign video that he supported abortion rights “up until a certain number of weeks and restricted thereafter” and that although red-state voters had rejected abortion bans, “almost no one supports the gruesome late-term abortions except to save the life of the mother.” He went on to share how he’d recently learned that “sometimes women abort healthy, viable, late-term fetuses.” (This is exceptionally rare.) View Source7: That lasted a couple months. In August, Kennedy told NBC News reporter Ali Vitali that “a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life.” Pressed by Vitali on whether that meant he would support a federal ban on abortion at 15 or 21 weeks, Kennedy said “yes” twice. View Source8: A spokesperson for Kennedy’s campaign quickly said in a statement that Kennedy had “misunderstood” Vitali’s question, that he believed “it is always the woman’s right to choose” and that he “does not support legislation banning abortion.” View Source9: “I don’t trust the state and I think we need to trust the woman,” Kennedy said. “I wouldn’t leave it to the states.” View Source

Climate & Energy

Kennedy’s career as an environmental lawyer and activist means he has plenty of knowledge of the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. He has supported federal actions to address these issues 10.

An older policy page from Kennedy’s website mentioned plans to incentivize zero-waste cycles and clean energy sources, but these plans have since been abandoned from his current agenda 11.

Initially, Kennedy pledged to ban fracking outright but later revised this stance, acknowledging that an immediate and total ban would be economically unrealistic. Instead, he supports removing subsidies and a moratorium on new exploration 12.

Over his career and campaign, Kennedy has built a reputation as an environmental lawyer advocating against pollution, although his recent policy specifics have been lacking 13.

10: Kennedy’s career as an environmental lawyer and activist means he has plenty of knowledge of the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming, and he has supported federal action in the past. Two decades ago, he told Grist that it would be more beneficial to “work for a politician who is going to implement the [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] standards” than to recycle or buy a Prius. View Source11: An old 'environment' policy page on Kennedy’s website mentions his plan to 'incentivize the transition of industry to zero-waste cycles and clean energy sources, and forge agreements with other countries to implement these policies throughout the global supply chain.' However, the new environment page appears to have abandoned these ideas altogether and doesn’t mention them. View Source12: In September, Kennedy pledged to “ban fracking” as president. Then he reversed course, with his campaign saying he recognized that “an immediate and total ban on fracking would devastate the US economy, and is therefore unrealistic,” and that instead “he favors a gradual phase-out of the practice, starting with the removal of subsidies and a moratorium on new exploration.” View Source13: RFK Jr. built his career and now his campaign on his reputation as an environmental lawyer and activist advocating against pollution. Kennedy told Politico that he sold most of his stake in Arctic Royalty in December 2023 after the financial disclosure came out, but did not provide any documentation of the sale. View Source

Democracy & Rule of Law

Kennedy advocates for a return to a more democratic and open political process, criticizing both parties for corporate corruption and the manipulation of the Democratic Party nomination process to favor President Biden 14 15.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged a return to transparent government and intends to battle the entrenched bureaucracy in Washington, D.C., in an effort to protect civil liberties and democracy 16.

He argues that the two-party system is broken and has been captured by corporate interests, necessitating independent policies that will prioritize the American people's best interests over corporate agendas 17 18.

14: Kennedy was pushing for the Democrats to "return to its traditional commitment to democracy" with an open process. View Source15: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is encouraging Democrats to have an "open process" to pick their presidential nominee after President Biden announced that he is not seeking re-election. View Source16: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talks immigration, civil liberties and foreign policy as he pledges a return to transparent government and a battle against D.C. bureaucracy. View Source17: Independent of the broken two party system and the corporate corruption of our government, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will pursue new policies in the best interests of the American people. View Source18: Initially, Kennedy intended to run as a Democrat, but switched in October to become an independent. He said he did it because both parties were captured by corporate interests. But he saved special criticism for Democrats, saying the party of his uncle former President John F. Kennedy and his father, ex-Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had changed. View Source

Foreign Policy

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talks immigration, civil liberties, and foreign policy as he pledges a return to transparent government and a battle against D.C. bureaucracy 19.

Kennedy has admitted changing his position on border policies. Initially, he thought an open border was humanitarian, but later he supported restoring both physical and technological barriers at the border 20.

Kennedy’s foreign policy is influenced by his stance against "forever wars," advocating for the unwinding of the military-industrial complex to invest resources in the middle class 21.

19: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talks immigration, civil liberties and foreign policy as he pledges a return to transparent government and a battle against D.C. bureaucracy. View Source20: On this front, Kennedy has admitted changing positions. In August, he acknowledged, “I was against Trump’s wall, I thought it was a crazy idea. To me, it was a big mistake,” before saying that he now supported restoring both physical and technological barriers at the border. View Source21: End the Forever Wars Learn how Kennedy will unwind the military industrial complex so we can invest our resources in the middle class. View Source

Immigration

Kennedy advocates for the deportation of any undocumented person who has committed a crime in the U.S. and those already in deportation proceedings 22.

He supports reestablishing Trump’s "Migrant Protection Protocols," which require asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for court hearings 23.

Kennedy advocates for aggressive border policies, including a nationwide passport card program to make it harder for undocumented people to find work in the U.S. 24.

22: As a presidential candidate, Kennedy has all but endorsed Trump’s immigration platform. He has called for the deportation of “any” undocumented person who has committed “a crime” in the United States — without specifying whether that means serious crimes or traffic violations, adding up to potentially millions of people — as well as any who are in deportation proceedings if he takes office. There were 2.2 million deportation cases pending in the United States as of July last year, the Vera Institute of Justice found. Spear also told HuffPost Kennedy would “investigate and shut down the NGOs that are greasing the wheels of illegal immigration.” View Source23: But Kennedy has also separately, and somewhat conflictingly, called for reestablishing Trump’s “Migrant Protection Protocols” system, in which asylum seekers were made to wait in Mexico for immigration court hearings, severely impactingtheir access to a fair process. (Kennedy incorrectly called the program the “Migrant Protection Act” and mistakenly said it involved cases being “adjudicated in Mexico.”) View Source24: Still, even without Title 42, Kennedy has continued to advocate for aggressive policies at the border, including instituting a nationwide passport card program to make it harder for undocumented people to find work inside the United States. View Source

Ukraine & Russia

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticizes U.S. support for Ukraine’s war, suggesting instead a focus on more pressing domestic issues 25.

He opposes U.S. aid to Ukraine and accuses the U.S. and NATO of creating a "proxy war" with Russia 26.

During his campaign, Kennedy has stated his opposition to "forever wars," indicating a preference for reallocating resources from international conflicts to problems within the United States 27.

25: He has pitched himself as an antiwar candidate opposing aid to Ukraine and blaming the US and NATO for creating a “proxy war” with Russia – echoing a position taken by sections of the conservative right. Trump too has opposed aid to Ukraine. View Source26: He has pitched himself as an antiwar candidate opposing aid to Ukraine and blaming the US and NATO for creating a “proxy war” with Russia – echoing a position taken by sections of the conservative right. Trump too has opposed aid to Ukraine. View Source27: He has pitched himself as an antiwar candidate opposing aid to Ukraine and blaming the US and NATO for creating a “proxy war” with Russia – echoing a position taken by sections of the conservative right. Trump too has opposed aid to Ukraine. View Source

Israel & Gaza

RFK Jr. has defended Israel’s no-limits war on Gaza, aligning with Biden 28.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated that Israel has a right to exist but contends they do not have a right to commit war crimes, emphasizing that both Hamas and Israel should be held accountable 29.

He characterized Trump's support for Israel as unlimited and indicates that while Biden's approach might be less severe, it is not significantly different 30.

28: Yet, RFK has staunchly defended Israel’s no-limits war on Gaza, bringing him into alignment with Biden. View Source29: "Israel has a right to exist, but they do not have a right to commit war crimes, and both Hamas and Israel need to be held to account. Trump will be far worse than Biden with his unlimited support, and I feel like that's at least a plus." View Source30: "Israel has a right to exist, but they do not have a right to commit war crimes, and both Hamas and Israel need to be held to account. Trump will be far worse than Biden with his unlimited support, and I feel like that's at least a plus." View Source

Gender & LGBTQA Rights

Kennedy has referred to transgender rights as part of broader "culture war" issues, distinguishing them from what he considers "existential" problems such as inflation and housing supply 31.

31: Perhaps the answer to the lack of detail comes from Kennedy himself. Despite his own heated rhetoric on the issue — “Just as a cell has a membrane, a country must have borders or it will disintegrate,” his website states — Kennedy recently referred to the border as a “culture war” issue, along with guns, abortion and transgender rights. He contrasted those with “existential” problems, like inflation and housing supply. Yet another flip-flop. View Source

Sources

1: Kennedy continued his campaign as an independent, and he has reached double-digits in some polls on a platform that decries "corporate capture," the affordability crisis, and "forever wars," according to his campaign website. View Source2: He said neither party was addressing issues such as inflation, the $34 trillion national debt, the inability of many people to buy a house, the environment, rising health-care costs and political divisions that both parties feed on. View Source3: Independent of the broken two party system and the corporate corruption of our government, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will pursue new policies in the best interests of the American people. View Source4: Kennedy’s position on abortion has shifted during the campaign, but he is closer to Democrats on the issue. Having endorsed federal restrictions on abortion after the first trimester, he later issued a statement that abortion should be unrestricted until “the baby is viable outside the womb”. View Source5: At that point, Kennedy posted a lengthy statement on social media announcing his new position: “I support the emerging consensus that abortion should be unrestricted up until a certain point. I believe that point should be when the baby is viable outside the womb. Therefore I would allow appropriate restrictions on abortion in the final months of pregnancy, just as Roe v. Wade did.” View Source6: What is “a certain point”? Kennedy hasn’t said. A few days ago, he said in a campaign video that he supported abortion rights “up until a certain number of weeks and restricted thereafter” and that although red-state voters had rejected abortion bans, “almost no one supports the gruesome late-term abortions except to save the life of the mother.” He went on to share how he’d recently learned that “sometimes women abort healthy, viable, late-term fetuses.” (This is exceptionally rare.) View Source7: That lasted a couple months. In August, Kennedy told NBC News reporter Ali Vitali that “a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life.” Pressed by Vitali on whether that meant he would support a federal ban on abortion at 15 or 21 weeks, Kennedy said “yes” twice. View Source8: A spokesperson for Kennedy’s campaign quickly said in a statement that Kennedy had “misunderstood” Vitali’s question, that he believed “it is always the woman’s right to choose” and that he “does not support legislation banning abortion.” View Source9: “I don’t trust the state and I think we need to trust the woman,” Kennedy said. “I wouldn’t leave it to the states.” View Source10: Kennedy’s career as an environmental lawyer and activist means he has plenty of knowledge of the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming, and he has supported federal action in the past. Two decades ago, he told Grist that it would be more beneficial to “work for a politician who is going to implement the [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] standards” than to recycle or buy a Prius. View Source11: An old 'environment' policy page on Kennedy’s website mentions his plan to 'incentivize the transition of industry to zero-waste cycles and clean energy sources, and forge agreements with other countries to implement these policies throughout the global supply chain.' However, the new environment page appears to have abandoned these ideas altogether and doesn’t mention them. View Source12: In September, Kennedy pledged to “ban fracking” as president. Then he reversed course, with his campaign saying he recognized that “an immediate and total ban on fracking would devastate the US economy, and is therefore unrealistic,” and that instead “he favors a gradual phase-out of the practice, starting with the removal of subsidies and a moratorium on new exploration.” View Source13: RFK Jr. built his career and now his campaign on his reputation as an environmental lawyer and activist advocating against pollution. Kennedy told Politico that he sold most of his stake in Arctic Royalty in December 2023 after the financial disclosure came out, but did not provide any documentation of the sale. View Source14: Kennedy was pushing for the Democrats to "return to its traditional commitment to democracy" with an open process. View Source15: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is encouraging Democrats to have an "open process" to pick their presidential nominee after President Biden announced that he is not seeking re-election. View Source16: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talks immigration, civil liberties and foreign policy as he pledges a return to transparent government and a battle against D.C. bureaucracy. View Source17: Independent of the broken two party system and the corporate corruption of our government, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will pursue new policies in the best interests of the American people. View Source18: Initially, Kennedy intended to run as a Democrat, but switched in October to become an independent. He said he did it because both parties were captured by corporate interests. But he saved special criticism for Democrats, saying the party of his uncle former President John F. Kennedy and his father, ex-Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had changed. View Source19: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talks immigration, civil liberties and foreign policy as he pledges a return to transparent government and a battle against D.C. bureaucracy. View Source20: On this front, Kennedy has admitted changing positions. In August, he acknowledged, “I was against Trump’s wall, I thought it was a crazy idea. To me, it was a big mistake,” before saying that he now supported restoring both physical and technological barriers at the border. View Source21: End the Forever Wars Learn how Kennedy will unwind the military industrial complex so we can invest our resources in the middle class. View Source22: As a presidential candidate, Kennedy has all but endorsed Trump’s immigration platform. He has called for the deportation of “any” undocumented person who has committed “a crime” in the United States — without specifying whether that means serious crimes or traffic violations, adding up to potentially millions of people — as well as any who are in deportation proceedings if he takes office. There were 2.2 million deportation cases pending in the United States as of July last year, the Vera Institute of Justice found. Spear also told HuffPost Kennedy would “investigate and shut down the NGOs that are greasing the wheels of illegal immigration.” View Source23: But Kennedy has also separately, and somewhat conflictingly, called for reestablishing Trump’s “Migrant Protection Protocols” system, in which asylum seekers were made to wait in Mexico for immigration court hearings, severely impactingtheir access to a fair process. (Kennedy incorrectly called the program the “Migrant Protection Act” and mistakenly said it involved cases being “adjudicated in Mexico.”) View Source24: Still, even without Title 42, Kennedy has continued to advocate for aggressive policies at the border, including instituting a nationwide passport card program to make it harder for undocumented people to find work inside the United States. View Source25: He has pitched himself as an antiwar candidate opposing aid to Ukraine and blaming the US and NATO for creating a “proxy war” with Russia – echoing a position taken by sections of the conservative right. Trump too has opposed aid to Ukraine. View Source26: He has pitched himself as an antiwar candidate opposing aid to Ukraine and blaming the US and NATO for creating a “proxy war” with Russia – echoing a position taken by sections of the conservative right. Trump too has opposed aid to Ukraine. View Source27: He has pitched himself as an antiwar candidate opposing aid to Ukraine and blaming the US and NATO for creating a “proxy war” with Russia – echoing a position taken by sections of the conservative right. Trump too has opposed aid to Ukraine. View Source28: Yet, RFK has staunchly defended Israel’s no-limits war on Gaza, bringing him into alignment with Biden. View Source29: "Israel has a right to exist, but they do not have a right to commit war crimes, and both Hamas and Israel need to be held to account. Trump will be far worse than Biden with his unlimited support, and I feel like that's at least a plus." View Source30: "Israel has a right to exist, but they do not have a right to commit war crimes, and both Hamas and Israel need to be held to account. Trump will be far worse than Biden with his unlimited support, and I feel like that's at least a plus." View Source31: Perhaps the answer to the lack of detail comes from Kennedy himself. Despite his own heated rhetoric on the issue — “Just as a cell has a membrane, a country must have borders or it will disintegrate,” his website states — Kennedy recently referred to the border as a “culture war” issue, along with guns, abortion and transgender rights. He contrasted those with “existential” problems, like inflation and housing supply. Yet another flip-flop. View Source