--- title: Why the Biden-Trump Debate May Boost RFK Jr description: The third party candidate drew millions of viewers during a simulcast event. canonical: https://time.com/6993371/rfk-jr-debate/ author: Vera Bergengruen article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-06-28T04:39:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:43:53.315Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why the Biden-Trump Debate May Boost RFK Jr og:description: The third party candidate drew millions of viewers during a simulcast event. og:url: https://time.com/6993371/rfk-jr-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt926960042709b63b/698a583cb21a9c5f9750a26c/rfk-jr-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2382 og:image:height: 1340 og:image:alt: rfk-jr-debate-2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why the Biden-Trump Debate May Boost RFK Jr twitter:description: The third party candidate drew millions of viewers during a simulcast event. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt926960042709b63b/698a583cb21a9c5f9750a26c/rfk-jr-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why the Biden-Trump Debate May Boost RFK Jr. > Sponsored content. 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Awkward exchanges, personal jabs, and falsehoods dominated the CNN Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump._  by [Vera Bergengruen](https://time.com/author/vera-bergengruen/)  ## Vera Bergengruen Jun 28, 2024 4:39 AM UTC Awkward exchanges, personal jabs, and falsehoods dominated the CNN Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.  by [Vera Bergengruen](https://time.com/author/vera-bergengruen/)  ## Vera Bergengruen Jun 28, 2024 4:39 AM UTC On Thursday night, independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. stood alone on a stage in a small studio in Los Angeles answering the questions posed to his rivals at the first presidential debate 2,000 miles away in Atlanta. A livestream behind the scenes showed dozens of people hooting, clapping, and chanting "Bobby!" from plastic chairs in a dark studio as Kennedy stood behind a lit-up blue podium with a screen behind him reading "The Real Debate." He faced Jon Stossel, a libertarian media personality, who served as a moderator of sorts as he frequently cut Kennedy off to return to CNN. The livestream on X—which presented a split-screen of Kennedy, President Joe Biden, and former President Donald Trump —initially hovered around 70,000 viewers, despite being promoted by Elon Musk, who tweeted a link telling his 188 million followers to "Watch this." But about halfway through the debate, as Biden stumbled in a raspy voice and Trump repeated wild and often misleading assertions, the audience for Kennedy's parallel debate at one point spiked to 3.2 million viewers on the X platform. In total, more than nine million viewers tuned in to watch Kennedy, his campaign told TIME. Biden's uneven campaign performance, [which widely alarmed Democrats](https://time.com/6993335/first-presidential-debate-analysis-2024/), will likely increase concerns that Kennedy could draw enough voters to risk becoming a spoiler in November's presidential election. Both campaigns have recently stepped up their attacks on Kennedy, whose famous name and longtime activism in both environmental and anti-vaccine movements could appeal to voters in both parties. **_Read More:_**[ **_Inside the Very Online Campaign of RFK Jr._**](https://time.com/6287001/rfk-jr-interview-2024-campaign/) Kennedy used his shadow debate to offer live commentary on his rivals, saying they represented the "vitriol, the division, the polarization that makes \[Americans\] disgusted with politics.” "If you want more of the same, you should vote for President Biden, President Trump—you know what's going to happen, you know that they're going to give you four more years of the same stuff," he said. "If you want things to completely change, then you're going to vote for me, because I'm going to change everything." But his event mainly served as a platform to repeat many of his usual talking points: lambasting the government response to the Covid-19 pandemic, warning about the “corporate capture” of U.S. agencies, and complaining about not receiving Secret Service protection as a presidential candidate. Answering the questions posed to the other candidates, he said that abortion should be “limited” in “late term," and sided with Trump on immigration, saying it is "undisputed \[that\] we’re seeing a rise in crime that is associated with the immigrants." He also seemed to defend Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, saying the Russian President had "been asking to settle this war from the beginning....The only thing Putin wanted was to keep NATO out of Ukraine." **_Read More:_**[**_RFK Jr.’s Campaign Prepares for a Pivotal Moment_**](https://time.com/6959052/rfk-jr-campaign-vice-president-announcement/) When Trump and Biden —who are 78 and 81 years old, respectively—insulted each other's health and cognitive ability, Kennedy, 70, took the opportunity to boast about his fitness. "All I can say is I hope they let me on the stage for that contest," he responded, to loud cheers from the audience, in response to Biden's invitation to play golf with Trump if the former President could carry his own bag. "I hike every day, I go to the gym every day, I don't eat processed foods, and I do intermittent fasting." Kennedy, who failed to qualify for the presidential debate hosted by CNN, said his exclusion was due to "collusion between two establishment parties." The network says he didn't meet their criteria to qualify, which required he reach at least 15% in four national polls. “This is something that’s important for our democracy because Americans feel like the system is rigged,” Kennedy said in his opening remarks before the debate. “This is exactly the kind of merger of state and corporate power that I’m running to oppose.” The Kennedy campaign last month filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing CNN as well as the Biden and Trump campaigns of violating federal election law. "CNN is making prohibited corporate contributions to both campaigns and the Biden committee and the Trump committee have accepted these prohibited corporate contributions," it said. For now, neither Kennedy nor his running mate, philanthropist Nicole Shanahan, have any formal campaign events on their public schedules. His campaign says they plan to announce a "full schedule" for the coming weeks soon. ## Transcript [00:00] If I'm elected, I'm going to restore Ro Wade. [00:02] So that means he can take the life of the baby in the ninth month and even after birth, [00:08] because some states, Democrat run, take it after birth. [00:12] Again, the governor former governor of Virginia, [00:14] put the baby down then we decide what to do with it. [00:17] Get the total ban on the total initiative relative to [00:22] what we're going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers. President Trump. [00:28] I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. [00:31] I don't think he knows what he said either. [00:32] Look, Hamas cannot be allowed to be continued. [00:35] We continue to send our experts and [00:37] our intelligence people as to how they can get Hamas like we did Bin Laden. [00:41] But he said the only one who wants to keep going is Hamas. [00:44] Actually, Israel is the one, [00:45] and you should let him go and let him finish the job. He doesn't want to do it. [00:48] He's become like a Palestinian, [00:50] but they don't like him because he's a very bad Palestinian. He's a weak one. [00:54] On January 6, we had a great border. [00:57] Nobody coming through, very few. [00:59] On January 6, we were energy independent. [01:02] On January 6, we had the lowest taxes ever. [01:04] We had the lowest regulations ever. [01:06] On January 6, we were respected all over the world, [01:10] all over the world, we were respected. [01:12] And then he comes in, and we're now left at. [01:15] We're like, a bunch of stupid people. [01:17] I said peacefully and patriotically. [01:19] He encouraged those folks to go up at Capitol Hill, number one. [01:22] I sat in the dining room off the Oval office. [01:25] He sat there for 3 hours, [01:27] 3 hours watching, begging, [01:29] being begged by his vice president. [01:31] The only person on this stage is a convicted felon is the man I'm looking at right now. [01:36] And the fact of the matter is, [01:38] he is what he's telling you is simply not true. [01:41] But when he talks about a convicted felon, [01:43] his son is a convicted felon, [01:45] at a very high level. His son is convicted. [01:47] Gonna be convicted probably numerous other times. [01:49] Should have been convicted before, [01:51] but his justice department let [01:53] the statute of limitations lapse on the most important things. [01:56] How many billions of dollars do you owe in [01:58] civil penalties for molesting a woman in public, [02:01] for doing a whole range of things of having sex with [02:05] a porn star on the night while your wife was pregnant. [02:09] I mean, what are he talking about? [02:12] You have the morals of an alley cat. [02:14] Give you a minute, sir. I didn't have sex with a Porn Star, number one. [02:18] Number two, that was a case that was started and moved. [02:22] And, by the way, I told you before, [02:24] I'm happy to play golf if you carry your own bag. Think you can do it? [02:29] That's the biggest lie. He's a six handicap of all. [02:32] I was eight handicap. Yeah. [02:34] Eight You know how many I've seen you swing. [02:38] I know you swing. Let's's act like children. [02:41] President Trump we're going to. Let's not act like children. [02:44] Pacific. Russia would have never attacked In preside. [02:48] The question was, will you accept the results of the election, [02:51] regardless of who wins? [02:53] Yes or no, please. If it's a fair and legal and good election, absolutely. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6993371/rfk-jr-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6993371/rfk-jr-debate/"},"headline":"Why the Biden-Trump Debate May Boost RFK Jr.","datePublished":"2024-06-28T04:39:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T07:43:53.315Z","description":"The third party candidate drew millions of viewers during a simulcast event.","url":"https://time.com/6993371/rfk-jr-debate/","keywords":["2024 Elections"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt926960042709b63b/698a583cb21a9c5f9750a26c/rfk-jr-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Vera Bergengruen","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/vera-bergengruen/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt926960042709b63b/698a583cb21a9c5f9750a26c/rfk-jr-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"rfk-jr-debate-2","caption":"A screen-grab shows Robert F. 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