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The Kennedy family has hit out at their sibling Robert F Kennedy Jr for endorsing Donald Trump in the US presidential race, calling it a “betrayal” of their values.

Mr Kennedy, also known as RFK Jr, announced he was suspending his independent campaign for the presidency to lend his support to the Republican candidate in certain states.

“In about 10 battleground states where my presence would be a spoiler, I’m going to remove my name, and I’ve already started the process,” Mr Kennedy said during a news conference in Phoenix.

RFK Jr, whose father Bobby Kennedy was assassinated as he ran for president back in 1968, said the Democratic Party was no longer “champions of the constitution” and had departed “dramatically” from the “core values” he grew up with.

Mr Kennedy, 70, cited free speech, the war in Ukraine and “a war on our children” as among the reasons he would try to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states.

“These are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump,” he said.

Mr Kennedy is also the nephew of former Democratic US president John F Kennedy, who was killed in 1963.

RFK Jr was 14 when his father, the former US attorney general Robert F Kennedy, JFK’s brother, was killed.

Robert F Kennedy in August 1964. Pic: AP
Image:
Robert F Kennedy in August 1964. Pic: AP

In response to RFK Jr’s announcement, his brothers and sisters shared a statement, saying: “We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride.

“We believe in Harris and Walz.

“Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear.

“It is a sad ending to a sad story.”

Pic: AP
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Kamala Harris addressing the DNC this week. Pic: AP

‘In an honest system, I would have won’

RFK Jr hit out at the media and the Democrats during his announcement, while saying his campaign team had “pulled off a miracle” by making him a presidential candidate.

“You showed everyone democracy is still possible here,” he said. “Today I’m here to tell you I will not allow your efforts to go to waste.”

Mr Kennedy added he believed that in an “honest system” he would have won the election.

President John Kennedy
Image:
John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Pic: AP

He criticised the Democratic Party, saying it had waged “legal warfare” against him and Mr Trump, who is running against vice president Kamala Harris to be elected in the presidential vote on 5 November.

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During his speech, Mr Kennedy also took aim at Ms Harris, who officially accepted her Democratic nomination yesterday, arguing that she had ducked scrutiny and interviews.

He also said of Democrats: “Who needs a policy when you have Trump to hate?”

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump visits the frontier with Mexico in Cochise County, Arizona, U.S. August 22, 2024. REUTERS/Go Nakamura
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Mr Kennedy is expected to publicly endorse Donald Trump for president. Pic: Reuters

According to Sky News’ partner network NBC, Mr Kennedy will be speaking at a Trump rally later today.

News of him endorsing the 78-year-old former Republican leader comes after Mr Trump appeared to try and woo Mr Kennedy last month.

In footage shared by Mr Kennedy’s son, Mr Trump says: “I would love you to do something – and I think it would be so good for you and so big for you,” apparently referring to the 2024 election race.

Mr Trump added: “We’re gonna win,” to which Mr Kennedy said: “Yeah.”

Reports of Mr Kennedy’s decision emerged earlier in court documents filed by the 70-year-old’s campaign team.

A Pennsylvania court filing asked to remove him from the state’s ballot, according to the AP.

And on Thursday, Arizona officials said Mr Kennedy filed paperwork to remove himself from the presidential ballot there.

Anti-vax views and turn against Democrats

Despite his family’s history with the Democratic Party, RFK Jr was running as an independent, after leaving the Democrats in October.

Mr Kennedy has made a name for himself as an anti-vaxxer during the pandemic – and beforehand.

Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr speaks at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. July 26, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Wurm
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Pic: Reuters

As well as sharing disinformation online, Mr Kennedy became a regular on the anti-mandate rally circuit during the coronavirus response.

At one event, he compared the US government’s use of vaccine mandates to laws in Nazi Germany.

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“Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did,” he told the crowd at a march in January 2022.

“Today, the mechanisms are being put in place that will make it so none of us can run, and none of us can hide.”

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Donald Trump says second UK state visit could happen in September

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Donald Trump says second UK state visit could happen in September

Donald Trump has said his second state visit to the UK could take place in September.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer handed over an invitation from the King when he visited Washington in February.

Trump teases return to UK – latest updates

Buckingham Palace previously only said the visit would happen “when diaries allow”, but Mr Trump told reporters on Thursday: “I think they are setting a date for September.”

“I don’t know how it can be bigger than the last one,” he said.

“The last one was incredible, but they say the next one will be even more important.”

Sir Keir Starmer the Trump charmer.
Pic: PA
Image:
Sir Keir Starmer handed Trump the invite earlier this year. Pic: PA

Mr Trump will become the only elected political leader in modern times to be invited to two state visits by a British monarch.

The president called the UK a “great country” in his comments at the White House on Thursday and said it was “an honour to be a friend of King Charles and the family, William”.

His first state visit was in 2019, when he was hosted by the late Queen.

Second-term US presidents who have already made a state visit usually get tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama.

Read more from Sky News:
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The president was hosted by the Queen in June 2019. Pic: Reuters
Image:
The president was hosted by the Queen in June 2019. Pic: Reuters

But Mr Trump is set to get all the pomp and ceremony laid on again in his honour – with another state banquet likely at Buckingham Palace.

The Royal Family‘s soft power diplomacy is viewed as a way of currying favour with the president, who’s known for his love of the monarchy and links to the UK through his mother, who was born on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.

It comes as the government seeks an economic deal with the US, in the hope of potentially lessening the impact of the president’s tariffs.

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Four in hospital as police deal with active shooter at Florida university

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Four in hospital as police deal with active shooter at Florida university

Four people are in hospital as police deal with an active shooter on a university campus in Florida.

Videos showed people running through traffic, fleeing the scene, around the time of the shooting at the student union at Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee.

Local police were “on the scene or on the way”, according to an alert sent out by the school and students have been told to “shelter in place”.

The FBI is also said to be responding to the incident.

Florida State University students wait for news amid an active shooter incident at the school.
Pic: AP/Kate Payne
Image:
Florida State University students wait for news amid an active shooter incident at the school.
Pic: AP/Kate Payne

In a statement, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said it was “actively receiving and caring for patients” from the incident.

“At this time, details are still unfolding, and we do not yet have specific information to share. However, we want to assure the community that our teams are fully mobilised and prepared to provide the highest level of care and support to all those affected,” it added.

President Donald Trump said he was fully briefed on the incident and described it as “a shame”.

More on Florida

He added: “It’s a horrible thing. Horrible that things like this take place.”

Florida governor Ron DeSantis, in a statement posted on X, said: “Our prayers are with our FSU family and state law enforcement is actively responding.”

Ambulances, fire trucks and police vehicles raced to the campus around midday local time (5pm UK time) on Thursday.

As students streamed away from the area of the student union in their hundreds, some were visibly emotional and others were glued to their phones.

Dozens later gathered near the university’s music school, waiting for news.

Florida State University student Daniella Streety told NBC News of the chaos that unfolded at the scene.

She remained on lockdown in a campus building and said: “I did see them carry out one student in what looked like on a stretcher and kept them in the road until an ambulance was able to pick them up.”

Joshua Sirmans, 20, was in the university’s main library when he said alarms began going off warning of an active shooter.

Police escorted him and other students out of the library with their hands over their heads, he said.

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US judge warns Trump administration could be in criminal contempt over El Salvador deportations

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White House rages at 'appalling' attempt to return wrongly deported man from El Salvador

A US federal judge has warned that he could hold the Trump administration in contempt for violating his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador.

US District Judge James E. Boasberg said he had found “probable cause” to hold the administration in criminal contempt and warned he could refer the matter for prosecution if it does not “purge” its contempt.

If the government doesn’t purge the contempt, charges could be brought forward by the Justice Department, NBC News reported.

And if the executive-led Justice Department refused to prosecute the matter, Judge Boasberg said he would appoint another attorney to prosecute the contempt.

Mr Boasberg said the administration could “purge contempt by returning those who were sent to El Salvador prison, in violation of his order, to the US.

This, he said, “might avail themselves of their right to challenge their removability”.

“The Constitution does not tolerate wilful disobedience of judicial orders – especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” the judge wrote.

Executive vs judicial

This marks a notable escalation in the ongoing tensions between the judicial and executive branches of the US government during Donald Trump’s second term.

Parts of the US president’s legislative programme have been halted by judges, as the administration strains against the restraints of the separation of powers.

Mr Trump previously called for Judge Boasberg to be impeached while the Justice Department claimed he overstepped his authority – both reflecting the administration’s attempts to overcome perceived obstacles to the implementation of its agenda.

Mr Trump’s administration has also argued it did not violate any orders.

It claimed the judge didn’t include a turnaround directive in his written order and said the planes had already left the US by the time the order came down.

‘Administrative error’

At the heart of the legal wrangling is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was sent to El Salvador by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.

Washington acknowledged that Mr Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error”.

The US Supreme Court has called on the administration to facilitate his return, upholding a court order by Judge Paula Xinis, but Trump officials have claimed that Mr Garcia has ties to the MS-13 gang.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Pic: CASA / AP
Image:
Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Pic: CASA/AP

Mr Garcia’s lawyers have argued there is no evidence of this.

This all comes after El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele visited the White House earlier this week.

During his time with Mr Trump, Mr Bukele said that he would not return Mr Garcia, likening it to smuggling “a terrorist into the United States.”

The US and El Salvador presidents in the Oval Office.
Pic: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Image:
The US and El Salvador presidents in the Oval Office.
Pic: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

Along with Mr Garcia, the Trump administration has deported hundreds of people, mostly Venezuelans, whom it claims are gang members without presenting evidence and without a trial.

Democrat senator travels to El Salvador

Meanwhile, Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen arrived in El Salvador on Wednesday, saying he would seek a meeting with the country’s officials to secure Mr Garcia’s release.

“I just arrived in San Salvador a little while ago and look forward to meeting with the US embassy team to discuss Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release,” Mr Van Hollen said on social media.

Deportations have been an important part of Mr Trump’s second term, with him being vocal on the issue throughout the campaign trail and into office.

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