RFK Jr fires campaign aide after she said beating Biden was ‘number one priority’

A campaign staffer for independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr was terminated after telling a group of Republican voters that beating President Joe Biden was her “number one priority” and encouraging them to volunteer for Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, RFK Jr’s campaign manager, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, confirmed in a statement on X that the campaign had “terminated”  Rita Palma’s contract for “misrepresentation”.

Earlier this week, a video circulated of Ms Palma identifying herself as the New York state director of RFK Jr’s campaign to a group of GOP voters. In it, she presented an argument that insinuated the purpose of Kennedy’s campaign was to take votes away from Mr Biden. A spokesperson for Kennedy’s campaign said Ms Palma was just a “ballot access consultant” and her speech was not a Kennedy campaign event.

Ms Fox Kennedy said Ms Palma was “immediately” terminated “upon seeing the longer video in which she gave an inaccurate job title and described a conversation that did not happen”.

Ms Palma confirmed to CNN she was no longer employed by the Kennedy campaign but asserted that she believed RFK Jr was “by far the best candidate”.

A spokesperson for Mr Kennedy’s campaign confirmed Ms Palma had been terminated. “As an Independent movement, our supporters, volunteers, and field organizers come from all sides of the political spectrum and their reasons for supporting Mr Kennedy are as disparate as their backgrounds,” the statement said.

“Rita Palma was a ballot access consultant responsible for scheduling volunteer shifts for our upcoming signature collection drive in the Empire State. She was not involved in electoral strategy, nationally or in New York. “

Ms Palma’s termination comes amid minor