RFK Jr’s cousin calls him ‘predator’ to try to stop his Trump administration confirmation
Robert F Kennedy Jr’s cousin has accused him of being a ‘predator’ and hurting others including his own family ahead of his Trump administration confirmation hearing.
Caroline Kennedy penned a blistering two-page letter to US senators a day before his cousin’s confirmation hearing to be secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday.
Kennedy, who served as US ambassador to Australia and Japan, wrote that that Kennedy Jr is ‘unqualified to fill’ the role and went into various alleged reasons.
‘It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator,’ said Kennedy, reading her full letter in a video shared on Instagram by her son Jack Schlossberg.
She also accused her cousin of taking advantage of others through misinformation on vaccines.
‘Bobby preys on the desperation of parents of sick children — vaccinating his own children while building a following by hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs,’ she wrote.
Kennedy Jr was ‘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’, his cousin claimed.
Kennedy, who is the last living child of ex-President John F Kennedy, added that Trump’s HHS nominee encouraged his siblings and cousins ‘down the path of substance abuse suffered addiction, illness and death’.
‘His basement, his garage, and 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,’ she wrote.
‘It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence.’
Kennedy commended her cousin for overcoming challenges including illnesses, but also condemned him for going on ‘to misrepresent, lie and cheat his way through life’.
Kennedy Jr has not commented publicly on his cousin’s remarks.
He has said his mission as HHS boss will be to ‘Make America Healthy Again’ through improving Americans’ eating and drinking habits and reversing the chronic illness epidemic. Kennedy Jr endorsed Trump after dropping out of the 2024 presidential race as an independent candidate.
Kennedy said that America’s doctors, nurses, scientists, researchers and healthcare providers ‘deserve a stable, moral and ethical person at the helm of this crucial agency’, not his cousin.
‘They deserve better than Bobby Kennedy — and so do the rest of us,’ she concluded.
In order to be confirmed as HHS secretary, Kennedy Jr can only lose three Republican votes.
Kennedy Jr is one of Trump’s more controversial Cabinet picks, along with former Fox News host Pete Hegseth who was confirmed by the Senate as secretary of defense last week.
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