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We all know Kelly isn’t afraid to voice his opinion on a broad range of subjects, even politics, which someone with a following and business portfolio such as his often does their best to avoid – particularly in a politically divisive era.
Kelly shared yesterday that he will be joining the Twitter Spaces hosted by Elon Musk for the 2024 Democratic presidential runner Robert Kennedy Jr (RFK Jr).
I’m going to @RobertKennedyJr’s upcoming Space. Will you join too? https://t.co/WAYOGraCiI
— Kelly Slater (@kellyslater) June 4, 2023
Spaces, is a platform for live audio conversations on Twitter where anyone can join, listen, and ask to speak. Kelly was actually one of the few given the opportunity to talk to RFK Jr.
Fortunately, there were no technical difficulties like last week when Republican Senator Ron De Santis announced his presidential run on the platform. It became quite the news story when Spaces crashed due to the outrageous numbers of live listeners – it garnered over 4.2 million listens.
If you don’t know much about Robert F Kennedy Jr, the 69-year-old served as an American environmental attorney and has been a prominent voice in the fight against climate change, water pollution, and environmental negligence. However, most people know RFK Jr for his strong anti-vaccination stance. He has been a prominent critic of the COVID vaccine and Dr Anthony Fauci, the former Chief Medical Advisor to the President. Kelly has also expressed similarly forthright opinions about the COVID vaccine.
The Democrat presidential runner is also known for being the son of politician Bobby Kennedy, and nephew of President John F. Kennedy – who were both infamously assassinated. (Today actually marks the 55th anniversary since RFK Jr’s father Bobby was killed in California .)*
Kelly has had a friendship with RFK Jr for a few years now and has gone on Kennedy’s podcast before to discuss his career, COVID and environmental issues such as ocean pollution.
These recent actions by Kelly may not be categorised as an official endorsement, but it’s the only message of support the pro-surfer has issued for a runner in this upcoming election.
Slater must hold RFK Jr in high regard as he waited over two hours to talk in the Spaces today. Kelly spoke to the 800,000 listeners on Kennedy’s character and sees the presidential runner as a “trojan horse for transparency and honesty”.
Kelly also stated that the presidential hopeful is “very refreshing in this current political climate”.
Slater asked RFK Jr how he intends to change the negative narrative that currently surrounds him so people can hear his broader campaign message.
RFK Jr expressed his gratitude to Kelly for standing up to the COVID mandate and the way the pro-surfer carries himself, before answering his question.
Check out the full conversation in the Twitter Spaces below. Kelly begins talking around the 2 hour 9-minute mark, I think co-host David Sacks thought Slater was a skateboarder; it wasn’t the Yammer Co-Founders’ best joke as he introduced the 11-time world champ.
Anyway, forget ‘The Cut’ and the ‘Top 5’, Kelly is now part of a much bigger conversation, The American Presidential Campaign. Who knows, maybe one day he’ll really throw his hat in the ring?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2023
