Who is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?
2024 presidential candidate RFK Jr. has publicly positioned himself as an independent––an alternative choice outside of the two-party system that many Americans are disillusioned with.
Kennedy’s campaign generally appears to espouse more humanitarian ideals, promising to combat bureaucratic and corporate corruption, expand student-loan forgiveness, and support environmental protection.¹
However, Kennedy’s progressive, anti-institutional rhetoric may act as a proxy for his actual political leanings and purposely cover up his conspiracism.
Kennedy’s appeal to party independence was most recently called into question after he reportedly requested a White House position in exchange for endorsing former president Trump.¹⁴ Though it remains unclear whether the Trump administration will accept his proposition, Kennedy’s possible endorsement is indicative of his connections with Trump.¹⁴
In a leaked phone call between Kennedy and Trump, their conversation suggests an implicit alliance between the two.¹²
In the call, Trump muses about the same vaccine skepticism Kennedy has previously spoken on.¹² More pertinently, towards the end of the call, Trump can be heard saying the following: “I would love you to do something. And I think it’ll be so good for you and so big for you. And we’re going to win.” Kennedy responds, saying, “Yeah.”¹² Contrary to the past public rivalry between the candidates, Trump appears to endorse Kennedy’s campaign.
Coupled with the fact that Kennedy’s campaign has received funding from GOP super PACs, Trump’s seeming endorsement paints an image of Kennedy that contradicts his outward motives.¹³ Furthermore, though Kennedy purports to run on environmentalism, he has frequently spewed anti-science, anti-intellectual ideas, many of which are tied to right-leaning narratives. Despite his campaign’s somewhat centrist policies, Kennedy has a track record of embracing and endorsing extremist conspiracies.²
Though he now denies it, he is overtly anti-vaccination, openly stating that he believes “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.”³ He has endorsed the discredited and disavowed theory that vaccines can cause Autism Spectrum Disorder.⁴ He numerous dangerous conspiracies about the pandemic on social media, claiming the virus was genetically bioengineered to not target certain ethnic groups and urging people to avoid vaccination.⁵ He has also stated that anti-depressants could be linked to mass shootings.⁶ He previously argued that AIDS could be caused by something other than HIV.⁷ In an interview, he suggested that chemicals cause “sexual dysphoria” in children.⁸ He stated that 5G networks are a tool for mass surveillance and that Wi-Fi causes cancer.⁹ He has also openly speculated about hidden agendas surrounding the 9/11 terror attacks.¹⁰ Taken together, Kennedy’s status as an independent candidate should be viewed with skepticism, especially given his history of fringe conspiracies. Many such conspiracies are not only generally extremist but also inextricably linked to alt-right discourse (Walter et al., 2023).
Additionally, Kennedy was accused of sexually assaulting his family’s babysitter, Eliza Cooney, in the late 1990s, who he allegedly “forcibly groped.”¹¹ In a private exchange with Cooney, Kennedy claimed to have no memory of the event but apologized to her for “anything I ever did that made you feel uncomfortable.”¹¹ Ultimately, given many of his actions, Kennedy’s independence, objectives, and character should be evaluated when considering his campaign promises and political identity.
references
¹https://www.usatoday.com/elections/voter-guide/2024-11-05/candidate/robert-f-kennedy ²https://www.npr.org/2023/07/13/1187272781/rfk-jr-kennedy-conspiracy-theories-social-media-presidential-campaign ³https://apnews.com/article/rfk-kennedy-election-2024-president-campaign-621c9e9641381a1b2677df9de5a09731 ⁴https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/scicheck-what-rfk-jr-gets-wrong-about-autism/ ⁵https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/15/us/politics/rfk-jr-remarks-covid.html ⁶https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-conspiracy-theory-twitter-elon-musk-1234747479/ ⁷https://glaad.org/gap/robert-f-kennedy-jr/ ⁸https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jun/28/robert-f-kennedy-jr/no-evidence-atrazine-in-the-water-supply-is-causin/ ⁹https://www.mediaite.com/politics/rfk-jr-completely-caves-when-joe-rogan-asks-him-to-explain-his-claim-wifi-causes-cancer/ ¹⁰https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/robert-f-kennedy-jr-wont-take-sides-911-conspiracy-theories-rcna160255 ¹¹https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/12/rfk-jr-sexual-assault-apology-00167867 ¹²https://apnews.com/article/kennedy-rfk-jr-trump-phone-call-9b63423d0a6b0317ae03be15ff980bef ¹³https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/20/rfk-jr-super-pac-gop-megadonor-00159021#:~:text=backing%20Robert%20F.-,Kennedy%20Jr.,independent%20presidential%20bid%20%2425%20million. ¹⁴https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/22/rfk-jr-floated-job-trump-white-house-he-weighed-endorsing-trump/ Walter, D., Ophir, Y., & Ye, H. (2023). Conspiracies, misinformation and resistance to public health measures during COVID-19 in white nationalist online communication. Vaccine, 41(17), 2868–2877. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.03.050
