RFK Jr. announces he is running for PRESIDENT against Biden
RFK Jr. announces he is running for PRESIDENT against Biden: Anti-vaxxer vows to stop children being ‘poisoned,’ admits most of his family do NOT back his bid – and says wife Cheryl Hines will be a ‘really funny’ First Lady
- Robert Kennedy Jr will challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination
- The 69-year-old is known for his hardline anti-vaccine views
- He’s the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968, and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, who was killed in 1963
Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made his White House bid official Wednesday with a campaign kick-off event in Boston, standing alongside his actress wife, Cheryl Hines.
Kennedy gave a rambling speech, remarking how the U.S. would have a ‘really funny first lady’ if he’s elected, while admitting that most of the Kennedy clan wasn’t backing his run for the Democratic nomination against President Joe Biden.
‘There are other members of my family who are not here today,’ the 69-year-old Kennedy scion said to laughs after giving shout-outs to the handful who were in the crowd. ‘I know most American families – they never have any differences with each other,’ he said sarcastically.
He spoke about how his family members ‘have different views on politics in this country’ and have ‘long personal relationships with President Biden’ – as a number of Kennedys work for the current administration.
Kennedy said they disagreed with him on issues including government censorship, war and public health – alluding to his prominent vaccine skepticism.
‘And I love them back,’ the newly minted candidate noted, telling the crowd that family members wrote him ‘beautiful letters of love’ this week ahead of his announcement, as well as calling and emailing him.
Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made his White House bid official Wednesday with a campaign kick-off event in Boston, standing alongside his actress wife, Cheryl Hines
A supporter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. holds up a ‘Heal The Divide’ sign at a campaign kick-off event Wednesday in Boston, Massachusetts. She was wearing a MAGA-inspired hat that said ‘Make Vaccine Manufacturers Liable Again’
‘We have a polarization in this country today that is so toxic and so dangerous at any time since the Civil War,’ Kennedy said. ‘And part of the principle mission of my campaign and on my presidency is going to be to end that division.’
‘I’ll try to do that by encouraging people to talk about the values that we have in common, rather than the issues that keep us apart,’ Kennedy added.
Kennedy also talked at-length about how he started his career as an environmentalist, and bemoaned the environmental destruction in the last several decades.
He noted how children today wouldn’t see butterflies and songbirds at the rate he did as a kid.
‘I think we deserve a president in this country who cares about these things and talks about these things,’ Kennedy said.
At 48 minutes in, Kennedy warned the crowd ‘I’m about halfway done with this speech.’
‘This is what happens when you censor somebody for 18 years,’ he said to cheers.
He then proceeded to hit former President Donald Trump for enforcing lockdowns during the opening months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kennedy pointed out that Trump said ‘a lockdown wasn’t my idea,’ adding ‘but that’s not a good enough excuse.’
Kennedy was introduced by Hines, of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame, and by former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who previously mounted his own bids for the White House.
‘Hi, I’m Dennis Kucinich and I’m a Kennedy Democrat,’ the ex-Ohio congressman said.
He referred to RJK Jr. as the ‘Paul Revere of our time.’
‘Moving from town to town, warning us if water is clean to drink, warning us if our air was safe to breathe … warning us when our food is unsafe to eat. And warning us when pharmaceuticals are unsafe to use,’ Kucinich said.
Kennedy spent a portion of his speech speaking about Revere’s ride as well, which happened 248 years ago this week.
He spent the opening moments of his speech talking about his family’s roots in Boston.
The event was held at the historic Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Kennedy was able to fill a ballroom, with supporters stretching behind the press risers.
Organizers announced an overflow room was available too, if attendees wanted to be more comfortable.
Signs read ‘Kennedy 2024: Heal the Divide’ and ‘I’m a Kennedy Democrat.’
One supporter sported a red MAGA-style hat but it read ‘Make Vaccine Manufacturers Liable Again.’
Ahead of Kennedy’s announcement, family photos were shown on a jumbotron, including historic photos of RFK and JFK, as well as pictures of RFK Jr. with prominent Democrats, including Al Gore.
Kennedy’s official campaign kick-off about two weeks after he filed paperwork on his plans to run with the Federal Election Commission.
Biden has yet to officially announce a reelection campaign but earlier this month said that he was ‘planning’ to seek a second term.
Kennedy has faced criticism from his own relatives for repeatedly parroting bogus conspiracy theories that FDA-approved jabs are not safe.
He has also made the entirely fictional claim childhood vaccinations are linked to autism.
The nephew to slain President John F. Kennedy and the son of assassinated New York senator Robert F. Kennedy was kicked off Facebook in 2021.
The social media giant suspended his account as part of its crackdown on what it said was COVID-19 disinformation.
Kennedy’s announcement that he is running for the White House will also bring his colorful personal life back into the spotlight.
A leaked copy of his journal in 2001 contained sordid details of his serial cheating in which he spoke of his ‘lust demons.’
They contained scorecards of more than two dozen sexual conquests racked up behind his second wife’s back.
They carried the names of the women and the numbers from 1 to 10 next to each entry.
The codes corresponded to sexual acts, with 10 meaning full sexual intercourse.
The father-of-six married his third wife, Curb Your enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines, in 2014.
He asked his second wife Mary for a divorce n 2012.
Just four days later, the mother of four of his children – Conor, Finny, Kyra, and Aidan – was found hanged at home in Mount Kisco, New York.
She was reportedly convinced RFK Jr was having an affair.
Hines was introduced to RFK Jr by Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Larry David in 2012
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the son of Robert F. Kennedy (left), the late attorney general and U.S. senator who was assassinated in 1968 during a presidential run. He’s the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963
Joe Biden has faced a dip in his approval rating as the U.S. economy struggles to emerge from the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic
His attempt to become the next commander-in-chief will not be the first time someone from the Kennedy clan challenged a sitting Democratic president.
The late Senator Ted Kennedy took on President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination in 1980.
Carter, who was plagued by low approval ratings and a sluggish economy, saw off Kennedy’s bid but went on to lose to Republican Ronald Reagan.
Biden, too, faces similar challenges to what Carter experienced.
His popularity has taken a dip after years of slow growth and rampant inflation after the COVID-19 pandemic.
As many as 52.3 percent of Americans say they disapprove of his presidency, according to polling experts FiveThirtyEight.
That it is down from a 36 percent disapproval rating Biden had when he entered office in January 2021.
Kennedy enters the race with 14 percent of Biden’s 2020 supporters saying they would select him as their choice, according to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll that was released Wednesday, ahead of Kennedy’s Boston announcement.
Other surveys of Democratic and independent voters suggest Biden is too old to run again, but no high-profile member of his party has come forward to challenge him.
And only one elected sitting president has ever lost out on his party’s nomination for a second term – Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States, in 1852.
Kennedy is joined in the Democratic race by Marianne Williamson, a self-help author.
Marianne Williamson, who faced accusations of bullying her staff during her previous presidential run in 2020, has announced plans to un in a Democratic primary against Joe Biden
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