Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, urged senators to reject her cousin Robert Kennedy Jr.‘s nomination to be the next secretary of health and human services.
Her letter, which was followed up by a social media post, was withering in making the case that Kennedy was unfit for the role and personal in detailing his struggles with drug addiction.
Although she wrote that she has previously not wanted to speak out about family members, she said that she felt that she had an “obligation” to speak out.
“I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together. It’s no surprise he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator.” She said that her cousin led other family members down the path of drug addiction, and even though he has gotten clean, he is “addicted to attention and power.”
“Bobby preys on the desperation of parents of sick children vaccinating his own children while building a following hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs.”
Caroline Kennedy was serving as President Joe Biden’s ambassador to Australia when her cousin waged his presidential campaign, first seeking the Democratic nomination and later an independent bid. She wrote that “it wasn’t easy to remain silent last year when Bobby expropriated my father’s image and distorted President Kennedy’s legacy to advance his own presidential campaign — and then groveled to Donald Trump for a job.”
Among other things, Robert Kennedy Jr.’s campaign ran an ad during the Super Bowl appropriating a 1960 spot from his uncle’s campaign.
Caroline Kennedy also wrote that her cousin “continues to grandstand off my father’s assassination, and that of his own father.”
“It is incomprehensible that someone who is willing to exploit their own painful family tragedies for publicity would be in charge of American life-and-death situations,” she wrote.
Caroline Kennedy’s son, Jack Schlossberg, has been particularly outspoken on social media about RFK Jr., who has advanced conspiracy theories about the JFK and RFK assassinations. After Trump signed an executive order to release more records of the assassination investigations, Schlossberg wrote, “JFK conspiracy theories — The truth is a lot sadder than the myth — a tragedy that didn’t need to happen. Not part of an inevitable grand scheme.”
