It's literally definitionally quid pro quo which is almost always illegal somewhere if you dig hard enough. It's just become so totally normalized that no one seems to give a shit I guess.

I kinda hate discussing it around Trump/RFK because it feels so annoyingly libbed up, so I'm time machining back to spring of 2020. Pete (and the others) got a phone call presumably from Obama. All we know is he got a call. Presumably the offer was "drop out, endorse Biden, keep your mouth shut, you'll get a nice high up cushy job and we'll speak well of you in 8 years if you try again." You do for us, we do for you.

§600. Promise of employment or other benefit for political activity

Whoever, directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or other benefit, provided for or made possible in whole or in part by any Act of Congress, or any special consideration in obtaining any such benefit, to any person as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office, or in connection with any primary election or political convention or caucus held to select candidates for any political office, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

Source

There's that law that plainly by the language straight up bars a candidate for any office from offering a job to another candidate with conditions. "Proving it" might be difficult with most cases... which makes the RFK thing particularly hilarious because as with all shit around Trump they just do obvious corruption right out in front of us. Pete and Biden both suck shit but at least they didn't run around admitting to rat fucking. RFK was literally like shitty voice "uhhh I could uhhh fuck you over Harris uhhh please let me be the uhhhh vaccine czar uhhhh"

I don't actually expect anything to come of any of this, obviously, just mostly using it to point out another way the US is full of shit. Those positions are "supposed to be" given to people by merit basis, not by favoritism or nepotism or whatever else. And yeah all the dumbass libs would just claim Pete knew about transportation (yeah, ok, sure) or that Kamala was especially qualified for VP. I don't even know what Joe did for the others like Klob (sp and don't care to look up) and whoever was left. Warren seems to have been told to NOT drop out. Maybe they got some money from the DNC to push around their states, I dunno. Giving cash to help candidates you personally like is one thing though. Just giving an important job to some nepo dipshit who was literally only ever an evil consultant (and VP to a cop basically) is, uh, not good no matter how much the media normalizes it. VP sorta makes sense, but the Pete and RFK thing and many others from the past are just obviously exactly what they appear to be