Former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said on Fox Business on Friday that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dealt a “real blow” to Democrats with his speech and called Kennedy a “natural ally” of former President Donald Trump.

Kennedy said Friday he would remove his name from the ballot in key battleground states to avoid tainting the results and would back Trump in those battleground states. Gingrich said Kennedy's move highlights the “corruption” of the Democratic Party, adding that both independents and Trump are “defying the establishment.” (Related: RFK Jr. says he supports Trump)

“I think this is a real blow to the Democratic Party. When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, 'My relatives would not belong in the modern Democratic Party,' I think he was tearing down the whole of Democratic democracy and pointing out that this party is actually the party of bosses, the party of corruption,” Gingrich said. “So I think he's very effective, especially with young people, in saying, 'Look at how bad the Democratic Party has become.'

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“I thought the Biden-Harris administration, and I want to emphasize that the Biden-Harris administration, refusing to provide Secret Service protection when his uncle and father were assassinated was one of the most despicable things I've ever seen from an American president. I think he has every right to feel that he's fighting the machine,” Gingrich continued. “The machine has done everything it can to destroy him. So psychologically he's a natural ally of Trump, because they're both basically fighting the establishment. They've both basically let the establishment do everything it can to destroy them.”

“There are three big reasons that led me to get into this race in the first place, and they are the main reasons that convinced me to leave the Democratic Party, to run as an Independent, and now to support President Trump,” Kennedy said in his speech.

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