Ambassador Caroline Kennedy warns against RFK Jr.'s nomination
Former U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, who is privately a cousin of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., warns senators against nominating RFK Jr. as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. She believes he lacks the appropriate qualifications and medical experience. She also emphasized that his views on vaccines are incorrect and dangerous.
In a letter to senators, Caroline Kennedy cautioned against the nomination of her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. A video was also published on the X portal where Caroline Kennedy reads the content of the letter.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a lawyer known for his work in environmental and health protection but is famous for his skepticism about vaccines, having claimed they cause autism. Trump announced from the beginning that he would consider Kennedy for a role in his cabinet to help "make America healthy again."
Content of the letter to senators
Caroline stated that her cousin, "addicted to attention," gave hypocritical advice by discouraging parents from vaccinating their children while vaccinating his own. She claimed that his "crusade against vaccination" has also served to make him wealthy.
In the letter, she cited a New York Times report indicating that her cousin will retain his financial stake in a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the HPV vaccine. "In other words, he is willing to enrich himself by denying access to a vaccine that can prevent almost all forms of cervical cancer and which has been safely administered to millions of boys and girls."
At the beginning of the letter, the former ambassador noted that she had not spoken out about her cousin before because she "never wanted to speak publicly about my family members and their challenges." However, upon his nomination, she felt obliged to do so. "He lacks any relevant government, financial, management or medical experience. His views on vaccines are dangerous and willfully misinformed. These facts alone should be disqualifying, but he has personal qualities related to this job, which for me pose even greater concern," the letter reads.
Serious accusations against her cousin
She emphasized that she knows him very well because they grew up together. "It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets, because Bobby himself is a predator," Kennedy wrote.
Caroline Kennedy further claims that due to "the strength of his personality," other family members followed in Kennedy Jr.'s footsteps, on a dark path of addiction to "illness and death." "His basement, his garage, his dorm room were the centers of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence," she relates in the letter. She praised Kennedy Jr. for "pulling himself out of illness and disease," but lamented the "siblings and cousins who Bobby encouraged down the path of substance abuse suffered addiction, illness, and death while Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie, and cheat his way through life."
RFK Jr. withdrew from the presidential race
In August 2024, Kennedy Jr. announced he was suspending his campaign. He filed documents in Pennsylvania indicating he was withdrawing from the race for the White House. He then announced his support for Donald Trump, who was seeking re-election at the time.
Before the official announcement of Kennedy's decision, suggestions emerged that in return for supporting Trump, he would receive a position in his cabinet.