Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has announced he will run for the 2024 Democrat Party nomination. The son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former president John F. Kennedy filed on Wednesday, April 5, with the Federal Election Commission. This comes before President Joe Biden has made a formal announcement of his plans to run again.
Last month Kennedy tweeted that he was toying with the idea of a bid. “Help me decide whether to run for President,” he asked his followers, promising that if he garnered enough support and donations at his website, TeamKennedy.com, he would “jump in the race.”
He named his top priorities as ending “the corrupt merger between states and corporate power that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedoms.” He closed with the rally cry: “Together we can restore America’s democracy,” neglecting the fact that the United States is a republic, which is based on rule of law, rather than a democracy, which is based on mob rule.
Kennedy is the second person to formally announce plans to vie for the Democratic nomination. New York Times bestselling author and leftist Marianne Williamson launched a campaign last month. This will be her second attempt; she campaigned briefly in 2019 but withdrew in January 2020.
Track Record
Kennedy is author of the bestselling book The Real Anthony Fauci, in which he accuses the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of orchestrating “fascism.” Instagram de-platformed him in 2021 for trying to get the truth out about Covid vaccines; the social-media outlet termed it as “repeatedly sharing debunked claims.”
As president-elect, Donald Trump asked Kennedy to chair his vaccine panel, nearly three years prior to the advent of Covid. That distinction was due to the fact that Kennedy chairs Children’s Health Defense, a non-profit that advocates for informed consent regarding childhood immunizations. He is an outspoken critic of Bill Gates, accusing the latter of harboring a hidden agenda of population control.
Kennedy also opposes Central Bank Digital Currencies, tweeting that they will “grease the slippery slope to financial slavery and political tyranny.”
A graduate of Harvard University, Kennedy is an environmental attorney who has for years numbered himself among radical environmentalists. He founded the Waterkeeper Alliance in 1999 and for more than 30 years served as senior attorney for the hard-core left National Resources Defense Council. He is a staunch advocate of so-called renewable energy and opposes coal, nuclear and even hydropower — claiming that river dams adversely affect indigenous communities.
In the past he has endorsed former Vice President Al Gore and former Secretary of State John Kerry in their campaigns for the presidency. In the arena of foreign affairs, he has advocated for Marxists such as Chilean president Salvador Allende but has also harshly criticized United States foreign interventionist policies.
His Father’s Footsteps
Kennedy’s father ran for president in 1968 but was assassinated on June 5 of that year. In 2018, RFK Jr. told The Washington Post that he does not believe the man convicted of the killing, Sirhan Sirhan, is guilty. He thinks a second shooter was involved.
After visiting 74-year-old Sirhan in the California state prison where the Palestinian is serving a life sentence, Kennedy explained, “I went there because I was curious and disturbed by what I had seen in the evidence.” Though he kept the details of their conversation private, he admitted, “I was disturbed that the wrong person might have been convicted of killing my father.”
He pointed out that RFK Sr. was the top law-enforcement officer in the country at the time and added, “I think it would have disturbed him if somebody was put in jail for a crime they didn’t commit.” Fox News added this explanation:
Sirhan had admitted during his 1969 trial to shooting the then-Democratic presidential candidate, but repeatedly said he didn’t remember pulling the trigger. An autopsy report also showed Bobby Kennedy was shot in the back — when Sirhan was standing in front of him.
Reports through the years also indicated 13 shots were fired that day when Sirhan’s gun only held eight bullets. Several witnesses said Sirhan wasn’t close to the senator.
Kennedy has also expressed his doubts about the popular belief that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. He speculates that a CIA conspiracy was involved.
The Kennedy Curse
Once news broke of Kennedy’s current plans, social-media commenters began pointing to the supposed Kennedy Curse, which refers to the large number of calamities that have afflicted many of the descendants of family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Among these tragedies are John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s plane crash on July 16, 1999, and Michael Kennedy’s 1997 skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado. The latter was RFK, Jr.’s younger brother. Their niece, Maeve Kennedy McKean and her eight-year-old son, Gideon, were killed in a canoeing accident in 2020.
Republicans in the Race
Former president Donald Trump announced in 2022 that he will make another attempt for the White House next year. Media speculate that his former vice president, Mike Pence, as well as Florida governor Ron DeSantis will also throw their hats in the ring, but neither have formally announced. Long shots for the Republican nomination are former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
