Members of the storied Kennedy family spent the weekend disavowing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following his rambling announcement that he was suspending his independent presidential campaign in swing states and throwing his support to Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Five of Kennedy’s siblings fired off a response right after his announcement.
“Our brother Bobby's decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear,” they wrote. “It is a sad ending to a sad story.”
Kerry Kennedy appeared on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki” Sunday to deliver a blistering attack on her older brother and express unwavering support for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
“The stakes this November couldn't be higher, which is exactly why my whole family will be fighting so hard to reelect Kamala Harris and Coach Walz, who've been champions for the values that my family has fought for for years,” Kerry Kennedy told Psaki.
“I’m outraged and disgusted by my brother's gaudy and obscene embrace of Donald Trump,” she said. “I completely disavow and separate and dissociate myself from Robert Kennedy Jr. and this flagrant and inexplicable effort to desecrate and trample and set fire to my father's memory."
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. And I think if my dad were alive today, the real Robert Kennedy would have detested almost everything Donald Trump represents,” Kerry Kennedy said.
His lying, his selfishness, his rage, his cynicism, hatred, racism, fascism, the deliberate misinformation about vaccines, criminal felony convictions—Dad, he was the attorney general of the United States—his rape of E. Jean Carroll, his contempt for the poor, and suffering, for ethics, democracy, healing, his cruel sneering at human rights, for suffering of people in America and around the world.
The extended Kennedy family joined in blasting RFK Jr. over the weekend. Robert F. Kennedy’s grandson Joe Kennedy III retweeted the Kennedy siblings’ statement with a simple “Well said.”
And cousin Jack Schlossberg, son of JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy, was scathing in his assessment while reiterating his personal support for Harris.
RFK Jr. sibling Max Kennedy didn’t sign on to the initial rapid response Friday, but wrote his own piece for the Los Angeles Times Sunday.
“I’m heartbroken over my brother Bobby’s endorsement of Donald Trump,” he wrote.
To pledge allegiance to Trump, a man who demonstrates no adherence to our family’s values, is inconceivable to me.
Worse, it is sordid. Earlier this month, as Harris surged in the polls, my brother offered her his endorsement in exchange for a position in her coming administration. He got no response.
Now he has offered that same deal to Trump. His is a hollow grab for power, a strategic attempt at relevance. It is the opposite of what my father admired: “the unselfish spirit that exists in the United States of America.”
“With a heavy heart, I am today asking my fellow Americans to do what will honor our father the most: Ignore Bobby and support Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic platform,” Max Kennedy wrote. “It’s what is best for our country.”
Join the rest of the Kennedy Family in doing what’s best for the country. Donate to help send Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to the White House.