RFK Jr.'s sister accuses him of trying to "set fire to my father’s memory" with Trump endorsement
Kerry Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s sister, has rebuked her brother for endorsing former President Donald Trump, characterizing the latter as an "inexplicable effort" to undermine their father's legacy.
“I’m outraged and disgusted by my brother’s gaudy and obscene embrace of Donald Trump. And I completely get out and separate and dissociate myself from Robert Kennedy Jr. in this flagrant and inexplicable effort to desecrate and trample and set fire to my father’s memory," Kennedy said on MSNBC's "Inside with Jen Psaki" on Sunday, reiterating that she is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Her father, Kennedy said, "would have detested almost everything Donald Trump represents' if he was alive today." Trump is "a threat to most basic freedoms that are core to who we are as Americans, the right for women to control our bodies, the right to live in communities safe from gun violence, to love who you love."
Robert F. Kennedy, her and RFK Jr.'s father, served as U.S. Attorney General in former President John F. Kennedy's administration and nearly clinched the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination before his assassination that June. While he took actions to fight poverty and support civil rights for Black Americans, Kennedy faced accusations of political opportunism, particularly over his late opposition to the Vietnam War when running for president.
When RFK Jr. ended his presidential bid last Friday, the former presidential candidate was polling in the mid-single digits. In dropping out, he cited his worry that staying in the race would hurt Trump more than Harris, who reportedly rejected an offer from him for an endorsement in exchange for a cabinet position. RFK Jr. said that he had several phone conversations with Trump prior to his endorsement; his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, suggested that he could join a Trump administration as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
While RFK Jr. was running, Kerry Kennedy repeatedly criticized his campaign as dangerous for the country. After he dropped out, she and other members of RFK Jr.'s family released a statement that criticized him for his endorsement of Trump, calling it “a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear.”