The Kennedy household’s legacy is in disaster because the once-celebrated political dynasty distances itself from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose crunchy-to-alt-right political realignment has ignited fierce—and more and more public—disapproval amongst his family members.
Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Australia and daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, didn’t mince phrases on Monday.
“I think Bobby Kennedy’s views on vaccines are dangerous, but I don’t think most Americans share them,” she stated, talking earlier than Australia’s Nationwide Press Membership.
As soon as a outstanding advocate for environmental causes, RFK Jr. is now extra recognized for spreading anti-vaccine misinformation. He has drawn condemnation from scientists and public well being specialists for selling the debunked and harmful declare that vaccines trigger autism, amongst different falsehoods. His anti-vaccine stances additional aligned him with the precise amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which fomented an anti-vaccination rebellion amongst conservatives.
And now that Donald Trump has nominated him to steer the Division of Well being and Human Companies, RFK Jr. finds himself on the coronary heart of MAGA, eating on McDonald’s burgers and fries in a non-public jet, regardless of not too long ago calling such meals “poison.”
RFK Jr.’s nomination marks a dramatic departure from the Democratic values lengthy related together with his household.
Previously an outspoken Democrat, RFK Jr. made headlines final October after ending his main problem to President Joe Biden and working for president as an impartial. (A lot of his household, together with sister Kerry Kennedy, already didn’t assist his run.) However his political journey took a pointy flip this previous August, when he dropped out altogether and endorsed then-candidate Donald Trump.
That transfer prompted a blistering response from his siblings. In a joint assertion launched the identical day as that endorsement, 5 of Kennedy Jr.’s siblings—all youngsters of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy—expressed profound disappointment: “Our brother Bobby’s determination to endorse Trump at the moment is a betrayal of the values that our father and our household maintain most expensive. It’s a unhappy ending to a tragic story.”
The disavowal didn’t cease there. Kerry Kennedy, a outstanding human rights advocate and one among RFK Jr.’s sisters, appeared on MSNBC shortly thereafter.
“I’m outraged and disgusted by my brother’s gaudy and obscene embrace of Donald Trump,” she stated. “I completely disavow and separate and dissociate myself from Robert Kennedy Jr. and his flagrant and inexplicable effort to desecrate and trample and set fire to my father’s memory.”
Her passionate condemnation painted an image of a household in disaster, torn between their dedication to progressive values and the betrayal they really feel from one among their very own.
One other sibling, Max Kennedy, weighed in with a poignant op-ed revealed within the Los Angeles Occasions. “With a heavy heart, I am today asking my fellow Americans to do what will honor our father the most: Ignore Bobby and support Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic platform,” he wrote. “It’s what’s greatest for our nation.”
The Kennedys have lengthy been a logo of Democratic management. The household’s political affect extends from the presidency to the Senate and spans many years of public service.
Earlier this yr, they gathered in inexperienced fits and clothes on the White Home with President Biden on St. Patrick’s Day, sharing a second of household and celebration unity within the Rose Backyard. But RFK Jr.’s absence from that picture was a obvious omission, highlighting a deepening divide. The household additionally frolicked on the marketing campaign path, first with Biden after which with Vice President Kamala Harris when she turned the Democratic nominee. RFK Jr. reportedly tried to ask Harris for a function in her administration if she had been elected, and was denied.
RFK Jr.’s fringe concepts do not cease together with his anti-vaccine beliefs. He has additionally stoked misinformation round fluoridated water and supported the “chemtrails” conspiracy principle, which falsely claims that ordinary plane condensation trails are literally the federal government spraying chemical compounds to manage the inhabitants.
The Kennedys’ public fracturing reveals a household in disarray. As soon as seen because the torchbearer of progressive beliefs, RFK Jr.’s embrace of Trump and the alt-right challenges this legacy.
