Caroline Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, Jr. Photo by Pat Hoelscher/AFP via Getty Images/ Kevin Lamarque – Pool/Getty Images
Dear Commons Community,
Caroline Kennedy, the only living child of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, in a video (see below) posted on social media yesterday called her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of Health and Human Services, a predator.
“I have known Bobby my whole life,” Caroline Kennedy says in the video (below), in which she’s reading aloud a letter she wrote to senators. “We grew up together. It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator.”
Robert Kennedy Jr., U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, walks in the U.S. Capitol subway on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 17, 2024.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Caroline Kennedy’s son, Jack Schlossberg posted the video on X, formerly Twitter. He said his mother had sent it to a Senate committee, an action first reported by the Washington Post. RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for today at 10 a.m.
In the letter, she praised her cousin for recovering from substance abuse but said before getting sober, he encouraged siblings and cousins to use drugs and they wound up addicted, ill or dead. She said, broadly, that her cousin had gone on to “misrepresent, lie and cheat his way through life.”
“Bobby is addicted to attention and power,” Caroline Kennedy says in the video. “Bobby preys on the desperation of parents of sick children – vaccinating his own kids, while building a following hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs.”
She characterized running the Department of Health and Human Services – which includes overseeing the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health – as “an enormous responsibility, and one that Bobby is unqualified to fill.”
“He lacks any relevant government, financial, management or medical experience,” Caroline Kennedy said. “His views on vaccines are dangerous and willfully misinformed. The facts alone should be disqualifying, but he has personal qualities related to this job, which, for me, pose even greater concern.”
RFK Jr. has acknowledged skeletons in his closet and admitted he is “not a church boy.” His children’s former babysitter, who is about 20 years his junior, accused him publicly of sexual assault. He apologized to her but said he had no memory of the alleged encounter. The case never went to court.
Seventy-seven Nobel Prize winners penned a letter in December urging the Senate not to confirm his appointment, saying his leadership would “put the public’s health in jeopardy.”
Thank you, Ms. Kennedy. We hope the Republican senators heed your advice!
Tony
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