Robert F. Kennedy Jr. challenges Donald Trump to debate at Libertarian Convention

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has challenged Donald Trump to a head-to-head debate for when both address a Libertarian convention later this month, a move that comes as the presumptive GOP nominee has ramped up both criticism of Kennedy's independent bid and demands that President Joe Biden meet him on a debate stage.

Arguing that he is “drawing a lot of voters from your former supporters,” Kennedy said to Trump in an open letter posted Tuesday to X that the Libertarian convention provides “perfect neutral territory for you and me to have a debate where you can defend your record for your wavering supporters.”

Trump has been bullish in calling on Biden to debate him ahead of the November general election but has shied away from other rivals’ previous debate entreaties. Trump skipped the 2024 GOP primary debates, saying it was unnecessary because voters know him and his record.

Kennedy, who last year challenged Biden for the Democratic nomination before launching an independent bid, has argued that his relatively strong showing in a few national polls gives his candidacy heft. Polls during the 2016 presidential campaign regularly put libertarian Gary Johnson’s support in the high single or low double digits, but he ultimately received only about 3% of the vote nationwide.

In the open letter to Trump, Kennedy said their debate could “show the American public that at least two of the major candidates aren’t afraid to debate each other." Kennedy wrote that convention organizers "are game for us to use our time there to bring the American people the debate they deserve!”

Spokespeople for the Trump campaign and the Libertarian Party did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Kennedy's debate challenge.

Kennedy and Trump are scheduled to appear on separate days before attendees at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C. later this month. Both candidates have been courting support from libertarian-leaning voters, although Kennedy — who is working to appear on all 50 ballots, a state-by-state petition process — has ruled out officially running as a Libertarian candidate.

In recent weeks, Trump's campaign has ramped up its attacks against Kennedy, who has appealed to disaffected Democrats and Republicans looking for an alternative to the pending rematch of the 2020 election.

Last month, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “RFK Jr. is a Democrat ‘Plant,’ a Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden." MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump's candidacy, has also issued its own critical posts and created an anti-Kennedy website.

Leaving court one day last week after his hush money trial, Trump told reporters that he didn’t feel threatened by Kennedy's bid.

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

Michelle L. Price and Ruth Brown in New York and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump, followed by his attorney Todd Blanche, walks to speak to reporters following the day's proceedings in his trial, Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in New York. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. challenges Donald Trump to debate at Libertarian Convention

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. challenges Donald Trump to debate at Libertarian Convention

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a “hard landing” on Sunday, Iranian state media reported, without immediately elaborating.

Raisi was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV said the incident happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Traveling with Raisi were Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran's East Azerbaijan province and other officials, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. One local government official used the word “crash” to describe the incident, but he acknowledged to an Iranian newspaper that he had yet to reach the site himself.

Neither IRNA nor state TV offered any information on Raisi’s condition.

Rescuers were attempting to reach the site, state TV said, but had been hampered by poor weather conditions. There had been heavy rain and fog reported with some wind. IRNA called the area a "forest."

Raisi had been in Azerbaijan early Sunday to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. The dam is the third one that the two nations built on the Aras River. The visit came despite chilly relations between the two nations, including over a gun attack on Azerbaijan's Embassy in Tehran in 2023, and Azerbaijan's diplomatic relations with Israel, which Iran's Shiite theocracy views as its main enemy in the region.

Iran flies a variety of helicopters in the country, but international sanctions make it difficult to obtain parts for them. Its military air fleet also largely dates back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Raisi, 63, is a hard-liner who formerly led the country’s judiciary. He is viewed as a protégé of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some analysts have suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader after his death or resignation from the role.

Raisi won Iran's 2021 presidential election, a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. Raisi is sanctioned by the U.S. in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.

Under Raisi, Iran now enriches uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections. Iran has armed Russia in its war on Ukraine, as well as launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel amid its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It also has continued arming proxy groups in the Mideast, like Yemen's Houthi rebels and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

FILE- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi places his hands on his heart as a gesture of respect to the crowd during the funeral ceremony of the victims of Wednesday's bomb explosion in the city of Kerman about 510 miles (820 kms) southeast of the capital Tehran, Iran, Jan. 5, 2024. A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a “hard landing” on Sunday, May 19, 2024, Iranian state television reported, without immediately elaborating. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)