Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to run as a third-party candidate is “dangerous for our country,” said filmmaker Rory Kennedy and three of her siblings in a statement shared to social media on Monday. Their father was slain civil rights icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968.
“Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment,” read the statement.” Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.” The note was signed by Rory, Kerry Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
The statement added that running against current president Joe Biden is “dangerous for our country.”
On Monday, Robert Kennedy, who is an environmental lawyer and a staunch anti-vaccine exponent, announced that his leaving the Democratic Party and running as an independent.
“The Democrats are frightened that I’m going to spoil the election for President Biden, and the Republicans are frightened that I’m going to spoil it for Trump,” said Robert Kennedy at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. “The truth is, they’re both right. My intention is to spoil it for both of them.”
Rory Kennedy’s documentaries include 2012’s “Ethel” from 2012 about her mother Ethel Kennedy, the Oscar-nominated “Last Days in Vietnam” and in “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.”
Among the celebrities who have thrown their support to RFK Jr. is guitarist Eric Clapton, who recently raised $2 million for the then-Democratic hopeful at a fundraiser in California.
Kennedy’s wife, former “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Cheryl Hines is, naturally, supporting him. But she also called him out in 2022 when he said that Holocaust victim Anne Franke was “better off” than Americans whose employers made COVID vaccinations mandatory.
“My husband’s reference to Anne Frank at a mandate rally in D.C. was reprehensible and insensitive,” Hines tweeted at the time, per CNN. “The atrocities that millions endured during the Holocaust should never be compared to anyone or anything. His opinions are not a reflection of my own.” The tweet has since been deleted.
