Every Kennedy family member that opposes RFK Jr.’s presidential campaign
August 23, 20240
President Joe Biden has welcomed the support of Kennedy family members, some of whom have lined up against RFK Jr.’s campaign.
Matt Rourke/AP
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s large family keeps speaking against him.
Most of them have endorsed President Joe Biden.
Several have said Kennedy’s long shot campaign will hurt Biden’s reelection chances.
Since the day he declared for office, Democratic-turned-Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been chastised by his fellow Kennedys for being a threat to President Joe Biden’s chances at reelection.
“I hear some of my family will be endorsing President Biden today,” Kennedy posted. “I am pleased they are politically active — it’s a family tradition. We are divided in our opinions but united in our love for each other.”
Other family members have kept their support much more low-key.
“We love our brother. We love our party. And we love our president,” Christopher Kennedy told Politico shortly after RFK Jr. decided to run as an Independent.
“We want an American filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride,” the statement read. “We believe in Harris and Walz. Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.”
Read on to see how various members of the Kennedy family have spoken out against RFK:
Kerry Kennedy
Former Congressman Joseph Kennedy II (second from left) said members of the family will work to make it clear they don’t support his brother’s presidential run.
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Former Congressman Joseph Kennedy II said he and some of his family members would continue to express their disagreement with his brother’s presidential campaign.
“We cannot do anything that in any way, strips even one vote from President Biden. You put the name Kennedy on the ballot and Democrats are going to feel torn,” Kennedy II told reporters after the Biden endorsement rally in April. “We are trying to make them understand that this is an issue that they do not have to feel torn about.”
Kennedy II represented Massachusetts in Congress for over a decade, until 1999. Before leaving Washington, he ruled out a gubernatorial run. Kennedy also declined to run for the so-called “Kennedy seat” in the US Senate after the death of his uncle, Ted Kennedy, in 2009.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Rory Kennedy, RFK Jr.’s sister, was among the members of the family the formally endorsed Biden.
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Rory, the youngest of RFK Sr. and Ethel Kennedy’s 11 children, has repeatedly denounced her brother’s campaign.
“Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment,” Kennedy said in a statement when RFK Jr. announced his intention to run as an independent presidential candidate.
Kennedy was joined by three other siblings, Kerry Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy III, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Rory Kennedy was born six months after her father’s assassination. She is a documentary filmmaker. Her latest work is “The Synanon Fix” a TV series for Max that explores a drug rehabilitation program that turned into what some call a cult. Kennedy was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in 2005’s “Street Fight” a documentary about Cory Booker’s early rise through an unsuccessful Newark mayoral race.
Joseph Kennedy III
Stephen Kennedy Smith, JFK’s nephew, poses with US ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin (middle) to mark the president’s 1963 visit to Ireland.
Claire Cronin/X
Stephen Kennedy Smith has said that his uncle “does not have the vision, values, or judgment of RFK Sr. “
“I have known RFK Jr. since I was a child. We attended Harvard together and my father ran Senator Robert F Kennedy’s campaign for Senate in 1964 and his presidential campaign in 1968,” Smith wrote on LinkedIn. “When RFK Jr decided to run he didn’t call me to ask for help because he knew I would oppose his candidacy due to his misguided stands on issues, his poor judgement, and tenuous relationship with the truth.”
Smith has served as a US Senate staffer, lectured at Harvard, and is a philanthropist and entrepreneur. He also wrote a book about JFK with historian Douglas Brinkley, “JFK: A Vision for America.”
Bobby Shriver
Jack Schlossberg has called his cousin’s presidential campaign ” an embarrassment.”
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Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s only grandson, has gone after his cousin for invoking the family’s famous image for “personal gain” amid the presidential campaign.
“He’s trading in on Camelot celebrity conspiracy theories and conflict for personal gain and fame. I’ve listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president,” Schlossberg wrote on Instagram. “What I do know is his candidacy is an embarrassment. Let’s not be distracted again by somebody’s vanity project.”
Schlossberg’s comments are notable as his mother, Caroline Kennedy, cannot engage directly with the presidential campaign due to long-held interpretations of how federal law restricts political statements by US diplomats. Biden appointed Kennedy as US Ambassador to Australia.
A slew of other Kennedys have endorsed Biden.
Ted Kennedy Jr. is among the other family members that has endorsed Biden’s presidential campaign.
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Other family members have not been as outspoken in their criticism of RFK Jr., but they have announced that they will support Biden this November.
According to multiple reports, they are Beth Kennedy, Christopher Kennedy, Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Vicki Strauss Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy Meltzer, Max Meltzer, Ted Kennedy Jr., Peter McKelvy, and Rebeca McKelvy.
