RFK Jr campaign aide revealed as attendee of Jan 6 ‘Stop the Steal’ rally for Trump

A campaign aide for independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has been revealed as an attendee of the infamous “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6 2021 in support of Donald Trump.

Rita Palma, who is an aide for RFK Jr’s campaign in New York, called Mr Trump her “favorite president,” and attended several “Stop the Steal” rallies following the 2020 election, according to now deleted tweets sent from Ms Palma’s account seen by CNN, as well as comments she posted on the conservative social media site Parler that have since been made private.

According to CNN, in late December, Ms Palma tweeted that she would attend the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington DC on January 6. “I got my hotel room!,” she wrote, adding: “I’ll be there in Jan 6th #FightforTrump #Jan6.”

Although Ms Palma allegedly attended the January 6 rally, there is no indication that she took part in any violence or attended the Capitol riot that followed, CNN reported.

However, she later dismissed the violence during the Capitol riot as the work of a few attendees.

“Jan 6 was not a riot. A small group of people were trouble. It was 99.9 peaceful, respectful. I was there,” she wrote in a deleted tweet.

She also dismissed suggestions from then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that Mr Trump was to blame for violence at the Capitol.

“Actually the fault lies with the rigged election. Genius,” she wrote the day after the riot.

In separate tweets, which were analysed by CNN using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, Ms Palma repeatedly affirmed her support for Mr Trump and even asked whether he could run for a third term in 2028, despite the constitution prohibiting this.

“#Trump2024 Can he run in 2028 too?” she tweeted, posting a meme that said