The Senate should reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as secretary of health and human services, Caroline Kennedy said in a letter on Tuesday, calling her cousin a “predator.”
President John F. Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, a former U.S. ambassador to Australia, claimed that RFK Jr. was unfit to head HHS, which is in charge of 13 federal agencies, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In her letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Kennedy made numerous accusations, including the claim that brothers and relatives Bobby pushed toward substance usage died from addiction, sickness, and other causes.
She further said that her cousin had hazardous and purposely misguided opinions on vaccines and that he has any relevant experience for the position. In a video that her son Jack Schlossberg uploaded on X, she read the letter out loud.
Using her cousin’s nickname, Caroline Kennedy claimed that Bobby was addicted to power and publicity. Bobby builds a following by hypocritically advising other parents from vaccinating their children, taking advantage of the desperation of parents of ill children by vaccinating his own.
Reporters yelled questions at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday on the letter and his confirmation hearing this week, but he did not answer. He would not comment, a spokeswoman told NBC News.
He will make his first appearance before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday.
Children’s Health Defense, a well-known anti-vaccine activism organization, was founded by RFK Jr. He has frequently questioned the efficacy and safety of common vaccinations, including those against the flu, hepatitis B, and measles.
Caroline Kennedy used a measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019 as proof in her letter of the negative effects of her cousin’s anti-vaccine comments. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has denied any involvement in the outbreak, but Samoa’s director general of health has accused him of launching a disinformation campaign that fueled vaccine resistance at the time.
RFK Jr.’s intention to keep collecting money from lawsuits against Merck, a pharmaceutical corporation, is also mentioned in the letter. According to the lawsuits, the business neglected to adequately alert customers to the negative consequences of its HPV vaccine, which lowers the chance of cervical cancer. The vaccine has a comforting safety record, according to the CDC.
According to Caroline Kennedy, Bobby is prepared to make money and benefit himself by preventing people from getting a vaccine that can prevent practically all types of cervical cancer.
She expressed worries about her cousin’s character as well.
He relished showing off how he blended newborn chicks and mice to feed his hawks, and his basement, garage, and dorm room were the hubs of activity where narcotics were available, according to Caroline Kennedy. It was frequently a twisted sight of violence and hopelessness.
When he was campaigning for president in 1968, RFK Jr., whose father was a senator, ran for president himself first as a Democrat and later as an independent. However, he put his campaign on hold for the summer. He joined Donald Trump’s transition team shortly after endorsing him. Trump announced in November that he would appoint RFK Jr. as secretary of HHS.
Caroline Kennedy claimed that because she was a former ambassador and didn’t want to discuss family members, she had not discussed her cousin in public for the past year. Nonetheless, she stated in the letter that her cousin’s behavior will disgust her father and other family members.
In order to further his own unsuccessful presidential campaign, Bobby stole my father’s reputation and misrepresented President Kennedy’s legacy, she claimed, before groveling to Donald Trump for a position.
“Bobby still brags about his own father’s and my father’s murders,” she continued. I find it inconceivable that someone who is prepared to use their own traumatic family experiences for public attention would be placed in control of America’s life-or-death circumstances.