Bobby Kennedy Jr. attends an act in front of the Capitol in Albany, New York, in May 2019. Hans Pennink (AP)
The only dynasty in the United States refuses to steer clear of power, as illustrated by the step forward toward the White House that one of its members just took. Environmental advocate and anti-vaccination advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has submitted documents to the Federal Elections Commission to run for the Democratic Party in the 2024 presidential election. The trial was confirmed Wednesday by his campaign treasurer, John E. Sullivan.
The 69-year-old candidate is the son of former New York Senator, United States Attorney General and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968, and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, who suffered the same fate for five years. before. The patrician atmosphere of the family and its tragic entourage stand once again as protagonists in the froth of Washington’s days.
Kennedy Jr., the second candidate in the Democratic primary after Marianne Williamson, a self-help guru who was nominated in March, is a well-known anti-vaccine activist who has been using the organization to spread information linking vaccines with autism associate founded, Children’s Health Defense, very active in the fight against vaccination. He has also attacked the coronavirus vaccine and criticized the federal government’s management of the pandemic at the hands of his fellow religious theorists.
Back in 2019, before a public health emergency was declared due to Covid-19, three members of his family – his sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, his brother Joseph P. Kennedy II and his niece Maeve Kennedy McKean – harshly denounced his opinion in an article in in the opinion of Politico, which accuses him of “animating a disinformation campaign with heartbreaking – and deadly – consequences”.
Last year, Kennedy Jr. went so far as to invoke Nazi Germany in an anti-vaccine speech delivered in Washington. A year earlier, as the pandemic raged across the US – it has caused more than a million deaths in the country – the social network Instagram deleted his account “for repeatedly sharing discredited claims about the coronavirus or vaccines”. This year, the skepticism inoculated by those opposed to vaccination caused vaccination numbers to collapse.
More commendable is his side as a lawyer specializing in the environment and an avowed environmentalist. As a specialist, Kennedy worked with a group leading the cleanup of the Hudson River. He also worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council and co-founded an environmental law firm.
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Regarding his political ambitions, Bobby, as he is known – the usual treatment in the US is just his first name – let the rabbit loose when he tweeted in March that he was considering the possibility of running for the 2024 presidential election while he the chairman is Democrat Joe Biden’s ranks have yet to release his decision. “If I can raise the money and mobilize enough people to win, I will jump into the race,” he said on the social network at the time, referring his followers to his website. “Let Bobby know you’d like to see his tour of the White House,” the website reads while soliciting donations.
Bobby is the latest in a long line of Kennedys entering politics. His sister Kathleen was Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003; his brother Joseph, a Massachusetts congressman, the family feud from 1987 to 1999; and his brother Chris, an unsuccessful candidate for Illinois governor in 2018. The last Kennedy to hold elected office was his nephew Joe Kennedy III, a former representative from Massachusetts, where he lost a Democratic Senate primary in 2020. Caroline Kennedy, daughter of assassinated former President Kennedy, is currently the US Ambassador to Australia.
A Kennedy slump can add rhythm to the Democratic primary, which is in a latent state compared to the much more crowded Republican side. There are already four candidates: ex-President Donald Trump, who is leading the polls despite his legal woes; former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. Two party heavyweights, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, continue to defoliate the daisy.
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