Trump, Kennedy Jr. To Appear In Election Town Halls Hosted On Elon Musk’s X
Former President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will participate in live video town halls broadcast by X, the social media company owned by Elon Musk, according to multiple reports.
The presidential contenders will appear in separate interviews in partnership with cable channel NewsNation. The video series will be titled “The People’s Town Hall,” Axis first reported, citing sources familiar with the plans.
The dates and locations for the talks, which will reportedly include questions submitted by X users through the social media platform, were not immediately clear. HuffPost reached out to NewsNation for comment.
President Joe Biden will not participate in the events, people familiar with the plans told HuffPost.
Biden and Trump have already planned to go head-to-head in a June 27 presidential debate hosted by CNN. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent, was not invited to participate and has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, alleging that the snub is discriminatory and illegal.
Representatives with the Trump and Kennedy campaigns did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment Friday.
X has been steadily expanding its video outreach while attempting to transform into an “everything app” since Musk’s selection of former NBCUniversal advertising head Linda Yaccarino as X CEO in May. Yaccarino was the one who pitched the town hall idea to NewsNation’s parent company, according to The New York Times.
Musk has also tried to woo Trump back to X, after the former president was barred from the site following the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. His removal was reversed after Musk purchased the site in late 2022, though by that time Trump had already launched his competing platform, Truth Social.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Trump is considering offering Musk an advisory role if he is elected in November.
The Biden campaign trashed Trump and his relationship with Musk in a statement released Thursday in response to that report, accusing the candidate of shamelessly selling himself out to billionaires like Musk to foot his increasing legal bills and campaign costs.
“They know if they cut him campaign checks, he’ll cut their taxes while he cuts Social Security and other benefits for the middle class,” said Biden-Harris spokesperson James Singer.
