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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said during a Wednesday interview that—if he were to win the 2024 presidential election—he would consider Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for a position in his administration.
DeSantis, who is running for the Republican nomination in the race, made the remarks while speaking with Outkick's Clay Travis.
Recent polls show DeSantis trailing behind former President Donald Trump among Republican voters, while President Joe Biden holds a commanding lead over the Democratic challenger Kennedy. However, Kennedy has been garnering a lot of media attention in recent weeks for controversial comments he's made about COVID-19 vaccines. Some of those views regarding vaccines seemingly appeal to DeSantis, though, as the governor indicated to Travis.
The prospect of Kennedy having a position in a theoretical DeSantis presidential administration was brought up when Travis asked the Republican contender about putting Kennedy on the ticket as his vice presidential running mate.
"Here's the issue: I'm aligned with him on [former presidential medical adviser Dr. Anthony] Fauci, the corruption and the health bureaucracy—100 percent," DeSantis said. "But, at the end of the day, he's more liberal."
DeSantis listed some examples of issues that he and Kennedy may disagree about, including climate change and affirmative action.
"You need somebody that's going to reflect the values of the broad coalition," DeSantis said before indicating he may be open to Kennedy for another role given the Democrat's views on medical issues.
"Yes, the medical stuff—I'm very good on that. So that does appeal to me, but there's a whole host of other things that he'd probably be out of step with," DeSantis said. "If you're president, sic him on the FDA if he'd be willing to serve, or sic him on CDC.
"But in terms of being veep, if there's 70 percent of the issues that he may be averse to our base on, that just creates an issue."
Newsweek reached out to the presidential campaigns for DeSantis and Kennedy via email for comment.
Elsewhere in the discussion, Travis asked DeSantis if he would be willing to run as Trump's vice president in 2024.
"I'm running for president to beat Biden," he answered. "Doing number two, I mean, it just doesn't appeal to me, and I don't think I would be good at it. I think I'm probably more valuable doing other things."
He added, "I'm running to win, and that's the only reason I'm running. So, we'll either do it or not."
About the writer
Jon Jackson is a News Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more