Camelot Revolt: Kerry Kennedy Leads 'Heart-Wrenching' Campaign Against Her Brother’s White House Tilt
Kerry Kennedy is leading the 'heart-wrenching' campaign against her brother RFK Jr.'s controversial bid for the White House.
May 22 2024, Published 10:56 a.m. ET
Numerous high-profile members of the prominent Kennedy family have endorsed President Joe Biden over their own Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the 2024 presidential race. But Kerry Kennedy, the seventh child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, has led the charge against her brother's controversial bid for the White House, RadarOnline.com has learned.
"Nearly every single grandchild of Joe and Rose Kennedy supports Joe Biden," Kerry said, speaking for the family while sharing a stage with Biden in Philadelphia last month. "That’s right: The Kennedy family endorses Joe Biden for president."
"I love Bobby," Kerry said in a new interview with The New York Times. “It’s heart-wrenching to be in this position.”
"The Kennedy family endorses Joe Biden for president," Kerry said last month.
According to her siblings, Kerry has become the public face of her family's rejection of her brother's candidacy in part due to the unique closeness she shared with RFK Jr. when they were children — and the disappointment she now feels with him as the longtime president of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization.
"Kerry feels a special burden with his candidacy — a burden that impacts her work in a negative way," their brother Christopher G. Kennedy explained. “She has supported hundreds of human rights activists around the world. Her abilities would be diminished if the Kennedy name is associated with fringe thinking, crackpot ideas and unsound judgment.”
"Anybody can go look at the responses on my X feed or Instagram and see there’s a lot of confusion out there," Kerry added. “I have been compelled to clarify when the organization differs on issues such as the safety of vaccines, the role of H.I.V. in causing AIDS, the reason people are transgender and the role of platforms curbing disinformation, to name a few.”
Kerry has become the public face of her family's rejection of her brother's candidacy in part due to the unique closeness she shared with RFK Jr. when they were children.
Will the rest of the family's rejection of RFK Jr.'s candidacy and support for Biden have any real impact? Douglas H. Kennedy, one of the few siblings who has not spoken out against his brother because of his work as a correspondent for Fox News, isn't sure.
“I think the mistake the media makes is to think that his appeal to people is solely based on his relationship to our family,” he said. “I believe his followers are unaffected by his siblings’ or cousins’ concerns. His supporters believe in his message. I don’t think people coming out against him will have a great effect on that support.”
But the Biden campaign is betting on Kerry's influence, deploying Kerry and other family members to campaign in swing states. “I’ve told the Biden campaign that I’ll campaign wherever they want me to go,” Kerry said. Lauren Hitt, a Biden campaign spokeswoman, added, "We’re honored to have the Kennedys’ support, and we look forward to working with them to spread the message on the campaign trail about how the president is carrying on the Kennedy legacy."
Christopher said that he fears their family will be blamed if Donald Trump returns to the White House.
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“This is not against Bobby — this is for Biden,” said Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. “We’ve been for Biden a long time.” Christopher said that he fears their family will be blamed if Donald Trump returns to the White House: "People confront me at the grocery store — ‘Why are you letting your brother get away with this?’ I think we will all get blamed if Bobby causes this outcome to occur. I would say that, like all true believers, he is unreachable. That hardening of the shell has definitely occurred.”
Kerry still sees her brother at family events but hasn't been able to get through to him. “Bobby was up to the Cape a few times last summer,” she recalled. “We were both in Aspen on vacation and sitting around the lunch table. We send texts — we have a family text exchange — so there’s back and forth. But he’s not calling me for my advice. In the end, why is he out there doing this? For the same reason I’m out there. Because we both believe the stakes are high."
Upon being reached by the Times, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declined to comment on his sister's support of the Biden campaign. "I think I'll stay out of this controversy," he said in a text message.
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