Democratic strategists, commentators and politicians have warned of a tight race in November — especially so at last week's Convention. They've been zealous about trying to keep third party candidates off the ballot where they anticipate them siphoning votes away from the Harris-Walz ticket, and hired an army of lawyers in March for that sole purpose.
Once the Kamala Campaign caught wind that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — arguably the most serious and high profile third party candidate — was dropping out of the race and expected to endorse Donald Trump, they were allegedly desperate to strike a deal with Cornel West.
West alleges that they initially tried to play the “black card” and demand he “fall in line” so they could make history by electing a black woman to the presidency.
In a podcast interview, West explained, “Well, I mean a number of them reached out just saying I need to get on the bandwagon — this is a historic moment, especially a black moment…I told them, I said you all just talking to the wrong brother. You can offer resources or position or what have you — that's not what I'm all about. That's not the game I play…”
Once that method proved unsuccessful, they offered him positions as well as paying off his campaign debt.
The podcast host asked him, “Did they — just one more on this — did they offer you did they offer you a cabinet position, a lower position ,and offer to pay off any of your campaign debt?”
West replied, “Well, they offered serious, substantive conversation about all of those that could lead toward some real [unintelligible].”
As Israel vs. Palestine tensions continue to split the Democratic Party, top Democrats fear that West will pull critical votes from pro-Palestine voters.
Last week in Chicago, there were no major pro-Palestine speeches given on the convention floor, while the parents of an Israeli hostage was brought on stage. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged this disparity in representation on X (formerly known as Twitter), “Just as we must honor the humanity of hostages, so too must we center the humanity of the 40,000 Palestinians killed under Israeli bombardment. To deny that story is to participate in the dehumanization of Palestinians. The @DNC must change course and affirm our shared humanity.”
44 delegates at the Convention also made a point of voting “present” instead of casting their votes for Kamala Harris — likely in a show of solidarity with the pro-Palestine movement. Large pro-Palestine protests took place outside of the Convention throughout its duration, and one demonstrator rushed the stage at one of the first welcome events before being promptly escorted offstage.
Cornel West is vehemently and vocally anti-Israel, and has participated in anti-Israel, pro-Palestine protests since October 7th as a featured speaker.
RFK Jr. did in fact withdraw his name from the ballot in multiple states and join forces with Trump, in a historic abandon of Kennedy tradition.
Some on the left attempted to minimize this, claiming it wouldn't negatively impact their chances in November.
Mary Beth Cahill, Democratic National Committee senior adviser, said in a statement “Donald Trump isn't earning an endorsement that's going to help build support, he's inheriting the baggage of a failed fringe candidate. Good riddance.”
But pollsters indicated it could significantly change the odds in favor of Trump.
Democratic pollster Carly Cooperman admitted, “It's absolutely the case that the polls in these swing states show that with RFK removed, there is a small advantage that goes to Donald Trump. And in these states, every single vote really does matter…Democrats are far more enthusiastic about Kamala Harris as their presidential candidate than they were about Joe Biden. And so you're seeing much more coalescing among Democrats for Kamala, and therefore the support that RFK was getting in the most recent polls was certainly going to help Trump more so with him removed from it.”
