Several siblings of former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent the weekend condemning a family member after he suspended his campaign and endorsed Republican nominee former President Donald Trump, rebuking the Kennedy family’s decades-long association with the Democratic Party.
RFK Jr.’s sister Kerry Kennedy has been very vocal on television about her brother, saying she plans to “separate and disassociate me from Robert Kennedy Jr. and his blatant and inexplicable efforts to desecrate, trample and set fire to my father’s memory.”
“I think if my father were alive today, the real Robert Kennedy would have hated almost everything that Donald Trump stood for,” Kerry told Jen Psaki, Biden’s former press secretary, on her MSNBC show Sunday. “I am outraged and disgusted by my brother’s ostentatious and obscene attitude toward Donald Trump.”
Kerry, one of RFK Sr.’s 11 children, has had a long career as a human rights lawyer and is president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the nonprofit founded shortly after his assassination during the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination campaign. She was also married to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo before they divorced in 2005.
She was also one of five members of the North East political dynasty to sign a statement denouncing the endorsement. Other signatories included four of their siblings: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Courtney Kennedy, Chris Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.
“I love my brother, but this is a scandal,” Kerry told CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on Friday night. When the CNN anchor asked the Kennedy heiress if she had spoken to her brother recently, she responded with a blunt “no.”
“I saw him a few weeks ago at my daughter Mariah’s wedding. But Bobby knows my point of view and my feelings very well,” she added.
Max Kennedy, another younger brother of RFK Jr., made his own statement in an editorial in the Los Angeles Times On Sunday, remarks that echoed many of the arguments made by Kerry.
“His desire for power is hollow, a strategic attempt to gain importance,” Max wrote of his brother. “It is the opposite of what my father admired: ‘the altruistic spirit that exists in the United States of America,'” quoting a speech his father gave at the University of Kansas in 1968.
Max insisted he still loved his brother, but hated his gesture of supporting the Republican candidate. “This is worse than disappointment,” he wrote. “We are grieving.”
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally as former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looks on in Glendale, Arizona, U.S., August 23, 2024.
By Go Nakamura/Reuters
Meanwhile, the former independent candidate appeared on Fox News Sundaywhere he spoke more about the possible rift that has opened up within his family.
“I understand that they’re upset about my decisions,” RFK Jr. told host Shannon Bream. “But you know what, I love my family. I feel like we were raised in an environment where we were encouraged to debate each other and debate fiercely and passionately about things, and still love each other. They’re free to take a stand on those issues.”
He said he had “many, many members” of his extended family working on his campaign and supporting him. “I think we all have to be able to disagree with each other and still love each other.”
Celebrity friends: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Kerry Kennedy attend the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala in New York City, U.S., on December 6, 2022.
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
The former independent candidate’s campaign team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.
RFK Jr. said he would “actively campaign” and promised that Trump would make “a series of announcements about other Democrats joining his campaign.”
“I want America to be healthy again, and President Trump wants that too,” he added.
