Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met with Republican rival Vivek Ramaswamy on Thursday to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine and the “military industrial complex,” a person familiar with the meeting told The Post.
The two White House hopefuls met backstage at the North American Blockchain Summit, where both candidates were slated to speak at the two-day Fort Worth, Texas, conference.
The forum offered to host them in a fireside chat, but Kennedy declined, The Post learned.
RFK Jr. dropped his Democrat primary bid in October and has since flirted with various political events. He also joined Ramaswamy as a speaker at a Conservative Political Action (CPAC) event in October.
Kennedy and Ramaswamy have both criticized America’s involvement in supporting Ukraine. RFK Jr. has referred to the war as a “proxy war” and has said the US has conducted the war in a way that is “terrible for the Ukrainian people,” while Ramaswamy stands out as the only GOP candidate saying he would stop aid to Kyiv.
Both 2024 candidates have also specifically argued the “military industrial complex” has too much power in the US and is fueling foreign wars.
Ramaswamy, the multimillionaire long-shot GOP candidate, released the “three freedoms of crypto” policy framework on Thursday.
The policy includes allowing developers to have the “freedom to write and publish code,” banning the federal government from limiting access to self-hosted wallets and forcing “crypto regulators to apply well-defined rules to precisely-defined jurisdictions.”
RFK Jr. had previously announced a plan to exempt Bitcoin from capital gains tax when converted into US currency and has spoken out for the digital currency at numerous events.
Polls show Kennedy with a significant share of the polls despite his independent status. A New York Times/Sienna College poll showed the 69-year-old environmental lawyer and vaccine skeptic drawing major support from swing state voters.
Kennedy got support from 22% of voters in Wisconsin, 23% in Nevada and Pennsylvania, 24% in Georgia and 26% in Arizona and Michigan, according to the poll.
Political strategists have been split on how Kennedy could mix up the 2024 election cycle. His campaign pledges range from securing the border to environmental policies, and he has also spoken out for reparations — which President Biden has been hesitant to fully endorse.