RFK Jr. to stay on ballot in critical swing states

West Coast. We did want to follow some of the latest here as Robert F Kennedy Junior lost twice on Thursday. and his battles to stay on the presidential ballot in some states. and to get off of it in others. North Carolina's elections board, refused to take him off that State's ballot with a majority saying it was too late in the process from to withdraw now. meanwhile an appeals court in New York rejected Kennedy's request to get back on the ballot there. up holding a judge's decision to disqualify him for having lied on elections paperwork about where he lived. we do want to talk more about this as there is a lot to discuss here. So for that, we did want to bring in former New Jersey state representative and former State party chair John wisneski. Thank you so much for joining us here. on live now from Fox. Thanks for having me on, I appreciate it. Question. He is trying to stay on the ballot in some states. He's trying to stay off of it in up. Up taken off of. Can't they or won't they? I know there is some law and some deadlines that are at play here. Well, it's very obvious that he's playing a game with. what states he wants to be on, and what states He wants to be off, it makes no sense since he's already endorsed Donald Trump for president. Why he even wants to remain on a ballot, but to the mechanics of it, uh, States set deadlines, by which you have to decide to be on or off a ballot because They have to print ballots most importantly. they have to print. military overseas Ballots that get shipped out. Uh, there's a long lead time to get them out and get them back. and so in many cases that deadline is already passed the printing is already started. They're not going to go back and undo the whole process because 1 candidate has seen. He has no path forward. and now wants to get out of the race. He wants his name off the ballot in some of those. swing States. Those Battlegrounds States. How would that affect Trump come election time. If his name, were to remain on the ballot, well, it would probably. impact Trump because there are a number of people who let's say couldn't see themselves voting. for a Democratic candidate for president. but are turned off by some of the stuff that Donald Trump does. And so they're looking for a third way. Uh, Robert Kennedy could have been that third wave for them, so they could have cast the ballot. Um, not in favor of trump, not in favor of a Democrat, But for someone else, they're going to lose that and they're going to have to pick now. between the 2 major party candidates. How many states are? there left to make a decision on whether to keep him or drop And where do we stand with all of this? So, there are 16 States in which the decision's been made. He's on the ballot. And the remainder are states in, which, he's filed the paperwork. they haven't actually gone through all the signatures to determine whether he's on the ballot or not. And there are other states in which he's already been qualified. But then, now wants to get off. And so it's a mix if, if everything were to freeze today, uh, Robert Kennedy would be on the ballot in in 16 States. It'd be off the ballot. in just about every other state And so it really is a strange set of circumstances. I don't think ever before. in American politics, have you had a candidate? say I'm suspending my candidacy for president. I'm endorsing somebody else. but I want to stay on the ballot. It just seems to make very little sense. Kennedy's, New York attorney, Jim Walton said he would appeal this decision. about trying to get him back on the ballot. But can we even expect a change or is it pretty? set in stone? I think the odds are very steep about. trying to overturn a decision that's already been made As I said, there's a calendar and and look this is not a surprise to any of the campaign. advisors that Robert Kennedy has had on his campaign. They all know about these deadlines, they know that they're pretty rigid deadlines because of the ballad Printing and preparation that has to start at this part of the year. And so it's a little disingenuous for this attorney. this campaign. to be arguing that they're being treated, unfairly, when they knew what those rules were, long ago, he made a change in his Outlook as to how he thought he could do or who he thought he could support. and he's entitled to do that. But the deadlines are the deadlines and he's going to have to live with them. I wanted to go back to something that you just made a point there about the timeline. and a ballot replacement, right? And the cost of what that would take. Are you able to speak a little bit more about that as we are, you know? under 70 days away here from the election? What is that like, how much is that going to cost? uh, to do that? What would that timeline be well, I I think the timeline is already by the boards. I don't think that there's any time left but if you were to somehow, able to add days to the calendar, uh, when you're talking about a state, for instance, the size of New York State, uh, to change the ballot there. you're you're talking about a huge expenditure now. that's just 1 State. You know if you're talking about 3 or 4 States, you're talking about, potentially tens of millions of dollars that would have to be paid by the campaign. to undo all of this stuff. But the real thing is, that you run the risk of disenfranchising overseas and Military voters. who won't get their ballots in time those ballots won't be able to be sent back in time and as a consequence votes will be lost. regardless of who those overseas voters might vote for uh, they deserve an opportunity to get a ballot in a timely fashion, and be able to make their choices. irrespective of Robert Kennedy's change in heart about his own. Own presidential ambitions. There was a hashtag going around on the platform. X the other day about keeping Biden on the ballot. in, in light of all of this. I wanted to ask you, how that works in terms of Biden is this the same thing? I mean, Biden dropped out. a month or so ago, and now, there are calls for him to remain on the ballot. Is that even possible or even talking about the same thing here. No, we're not talking about the same thing. Joe Biden has made it clear that he has chosen not to be a candidate. Uh, he has uh, seated the Democratic nomination to uh Harris and she is now the Democratic nominee. There's no path. First of all. you would need to have the candidate himself say yeah I want to be on the ballot. He's made it clear, he doesn't want to be on the ballot. So I think again, it's a bit of misdirection by folks who want to complicate and confuse the electoral process. Uh it's not the same thing Robert Kennedy. on the day. that he endorsed, Donald Trump. also said, In the same. press conference. But if I'm on the ballot, vote for me, I mean that just there's something wrong with a candidate who says that John, is there anything else that you'd like to add to this conversation? That you think I haven't asked you yet? That is important for our viewers to know about this. Yeah, I I think what's Happening Here is that the Kennedy campaign is trying to have it both ways. Uh, they wanted to they they reached out to the Harris campaign asking if they could be part of it, they were rejected. So now he's gone to the Trump campaign. and he wants to keep his name on the ballot, where he thinks it will harm Democrats. and take his name off the ballot where he thinks it might harm Donald Trump. It's really election interference. We are getting down to the deadline here of when these states could, you know, make these decisions too. So this will be interesting to see how this plays out. Thank you so much for joining us here on live now