Christy Kelly, reporter at The Arizona Sun Times, detailed her firsthand experience witnessing history on Friday when Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump in the race.
On Friday, Kennedy formally announced the suspension of his presidential campaign and that he would be endorsing Trump in the race moving forward. The issues Kennedy cited for throwing his support behind Trump included “free speech, the war in Ukraine, and the war on our children.”
Kelly (pictured above), who sat front row at Kennedy’s press conference in Phoenix on Friday morning, said the room was “packed” full of journalists.
“Every single journalist in Arizona plus all of the ones that flew out for Trump, too, [were there]. So the room, it was in a hotel, was packed full of journalists. I know they actually started turning people away because the room was packed,” Kelly explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
In addition to the media, Kelly said many of Kennedy’s staffers were in attendance for his speech, which she noted was a sign that the candidate’s announcement would be “something big.”
“It seemed like almost every single staffer was there and many had flown in for RFK. So I knew it was going to be something big when I saw all the staffers also standing around,” Kelly said.
Despite the crowd, Kelly said the room was completely silent while Kennedy was delivering his speech, which Kelly described as “a little somber.”
“It was actually a little somber. I think he really felt the weight of what he was doing and the weight of the moment and the historical nature of it, but it was a little somber. It was very thorough… You could have heard a pin drop in the room because even the staffers that were standing around did not know what he was going to say,” Kelly explained.
In regards to the historical nature of Kennedy’s decision to endorse Trump, Kelly explained how his speech “threw everything else out of the news cycle” going into the weekend and now this week, given that Kennedy – whose family is iconically Democratic – endorsed Trump, who Kelly described as “enemy number one for establishment Democrats.”
“[Kennedy endorsed] not just any Republican, but ultra-right MAGA Donald Trump, enemy number one for establishment Democrats…It did throw everything else out of the news cycle. So this was the news definitely into the weekend and into the Sunday shows and probably even this week,” Kelly said.
In addition to attending Kennedy’s press conference in Phoenix, Kelly also traveled to the Trump rally in Glendale, Arizona where Trump brought Kennedy on stage.
Kelly said the moment was “electric,” with an overall feeling of a uniting “celebration.”
“It was electric. You felt like you were at the Super Bowl…Nobody knew for sure that [Kennedy] was coming. When Trump introduced him and when he came out, it really was electric and the crowd just went wild…It was one of the most exciting Trump rallies that I’ve been to…It was like a celebration,” Kelly said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Image “Christy Kelly” by The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
