Caroline Kennedy urges senators to block ‘predator’ cousin RFK’s health post nomination
The ex-US ambassador to Australia laid bare the painful secrets of the Kennedy dynasty in a bid to stop her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from becoming Donald Trump’s health chief.
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Caroline Kennedy has unleashed on her cousin Robert F Kennedy Jr in a bid to prevent him taking charge of America’s health system, accusing him of being a “predator” who turned their relatives into drug addicts.
The daughter of President John F Kennedy repeatedly refrained from criticising her cousin while she was the US ambassador to Australia and he was running for president last year.
But a day before Mr Kennedy’s confirmation hearing to become Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, Ms Kennedy broke her silence in a scorching message to senators in which she urged them to block his ascension to the powerful post.
While she took aim at his “dangerous and wilfully misinformed” views on vaccines which she said had already had deadly consequences, Ms Kennedy revealed “even greater concern” about the personal qualities of the cousin she grew up with.
“It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because Bobby himself is a predator,” Ms Kennedy said, in a video message to US senators shared by her son Jack Schlossberg.
Ambassador Caroline Kennedy’s statement to the US Senate on RFKJr’s nomination for HHS Secretary
— Jack Schlossberg (@JBKSchlossberg) January 28, 2025
This is a reading of a letter she just sent to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
I’m so proud of my courageous mother, who’s lived a life of dignity,… pic.twitter.com/feysNA0Wwp
“I watched his younger brothers and cousins follow him down the path of drug addiction.”
“His basement, his garage, his dorm room were always the centre of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence.”
Ms Kennedy, who left Canberra after November’s presidential election, said she struggled to stay silent when she watched Mr Kennedy “grandstand off my father’s assassination”.
“Bobby expropriated my father’s image and distorted President Kennedy’s legacy to advance his own failed presidential campaign, and then grovelled to Donald Trump for a job,” she said, adding that she believed her father would be “disgusted”.
“It’s incomprehensible to me that someone who is willing to exploit their own painful family tragedies for publicity would be put in charge of America’s life and death situations.”
Mr Kennedy’s nomination hangs in the balance ahead of his confirmation hearing, with several Republican senators raising concerns about his anti-vaccine views.
His cousin said she admired his discipline to overcome his heroin addiction.
“But siblings and cousins who Bobby encouraged down the path of substance abuse suffered addiction, illness and death, while Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie and cheat his way through life,” Ms Kennedy said.
“Bobby is addicted to attention and power. 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.”
“His constant denigration of our healthcare system and the conspiratorial half-truths he’s told about vaccines, including in connection with Samoa’s deadly 2019 outbreak of measles, have cost lives.”
She also cited her work on the Quad cancer initiative in Australia to expand access to the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, pointing out that Mr Kennedy was enriching himself by holding a financial stake in a lawsuit against the vaccine.
Originally published as Caroline Kennedy urges senators to block ‘predator’ cousin RFK’s health post nomination
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