FIRST ON FOX: Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. insists he has a path to beat President Biden in a 2024 primary, even without a debate.
Kennedy hopped on the phone with Fox News Digital last week and spoke on securing the border, his uncle John F. Kennedy’s assassination and his chances of unseating Biden in a Democratic primary election.
"Yes, I can win," Kennedy told Fox News Digital when asked if he can beat Biden.
"The public polls are showing me at 20% over for the Democrats, and our private polling is showing that I have very strong support among independents and even Republicans."
RFK JR. SAYS HE WILL ‘MAKE THE BORDER IMPERVIOUS’ IF ELECTED AS TITLE 42 IS SET TO EXPIRE
"So much stronger than any other Democratic candidate," Kennedy continued. "So, I think I’m probably in better shape to win a general election than any other person on the Democratic ticket."
When it comes to the lack of Democratic primary debates, Kennedy said he can’t speak to why the president is choosing not to debate him.
"But I don't think it's a good choice," Kennedy said. "I think we're living in a time right now that many Americans feel that democracy is rigged and that the election system is rigged."
The Democratic Party should be an example of how democracy works to select the best candidates, Kennedy said.
"We need to be able to show people that democracy works and the United States isn't just like the Soviet Union, where the party picks candidates and the public really doesn't have a say," Kennedy said. "And we need to be the party of the New Deal, not the Rigged Deal, and I think the optics of that are very bad right now, too.
"We should be trying to convince the public that we are the Democratic Party and that we do believe in democracy. And that the public actually gets to choose candidates, get to meet them, see them debate, touch them and participate in their own governance."
Kennedy said he hopped into the race because he believes "the Democratic Party right now is on the wrong track" — like the Republican Party — because it has "become the party of war, of censorship, of fear."
"A party that has brought the warmongering neocons into our foreign policy and turned our domestic policy over to Wall Street and large corporations," Kennedy said. "And we're living in a time when many Americans, 57% of Americans, can't put their hands on $1,000 if their family has an emergency, where a quarter of Americans are hungry or malnourished, undernourished, and where the middle class is now collapsing in our country.
"In 1970, the middle class earned 62% of salaries. Today, it's 42%. And the super-rich has gone from 29% to 50%. So, right there you can see why so many Americans feel that they're living on the … even the upper middle class feel that they're living on the edge. And that debt has become just a fact of life for most Americans."
Kennedy added he thinks there’s a "feeling" among Americans that "there’s something going wrong with our country and that the people who are currently in power aren’t going to fix it."
The Democratic presidential candidate came out of the gate hot, with the latest Fox News Democratic primary poll showing Kennedy commanding 19% of blue primary voters.
Fellow Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson took 9% of Democratic supporters from Biden in the poll.
Biden’s loss of voters to Kennedy and Williamson could be a dark cloud for the president as he looks to capture a second term in office.
