Robert F Kennedy

Robert F Kennedy Jr: The scion of a political dynasty

Belonging to the famed political Kennedy family, Robert F Kennedy Jr is the nephew of former president John F Kennedy and son of Robert F Kennedy — both of them were assassinated.

The heir of the Kennedy family is the chairman and founder of Children’s Health Defense — an anti-vaccine group — and he is also an independent candidate for the US election 2024.

Kennedy launched his presidential bid in April 2023 from the Democratic Party but in October, he announced that he would run for the White House as an independent candidate having called the two-party system of the US “rigged.”

Campaign Message

• His campaign is based on targeting companies and institutions such as pharmaceutical and tech.

• If he comes into power, he will immediately tell the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to refocus research on chronic diseases and not on infectious diseases and vaccines.

• The independent candidate aims to reduce military and health care spending to reduce budget deficits and wants to aid young people in buying houses by making housing affordable.

Kennedy’s 2024 Presidential Election Campaign

Kennedy’s campaign has taken him to places and people that usually do not see presidential candidates including Hawaii, Wyoming and West Virginia all because he needed to collect thousands of signatures to get on the ballot.

Thousands of his supporters queued up outside of venues in Las Vegas and Phoenix, hours before he was supposed to arrive. The name Kennedy and the candidate attracts supporters.

Kennedy is an advocate for the rights of the middle class and has won lawsuits against corporations such as Monsanto and DuPont.

“I can fix this country,” he said in Las Vegas in February. “All these agencies that intimidate normal politicians, I’ve sued every one of them. When you sue these agencies, you get a PhD in corporate capture and how to unravel it.”

Commonly understood, corporate capture happens when private interests use their influence to control government decision-making, such as by shaping legislation.

Kennedy has criticised America’s support of Ukraine in its war with Russia and has advocated for Israel’s war against Hamas.

Most of Kennedy’s loyal supporters are those who are distrustful of institutions and those who believe that the government has been taken control of by corporations including pharmaceutical companies.

Anti-Vaccine Advocacy

Kennedy promotes claims that vaccinations given during childhood lead to autism and is also a staunch antagonist of Covid-19 prevention vaccines. The scion of the storied Kennedy family never shies away from expressing his controversial views on healthcare and vaccines.

He has stated that if he comes into power, Confusingly, Kennedy insists that he has never told the public to avoid vaccination but on countless occasions, he has made his stance on pharmaceutically manufactured immunising agents clear.

Although severe reactions to vaccinations are possible in rare cases, Kennedy’s claims that 'vaccines are dangerous for life' seem baseless, as billions of doses are administered worldwide to people of all ages, demonstrating their safety and tolerance.

Kennedy as a Writer

Being an award-winning writer, his articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Nation, Outside Magazine, The Village Voice, and other reputable news publications.

He is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: “Crimes Against Nature” and “The Real Anthony Fauci” published in 2005 and 2021 respectively. He also wrote a biography titled “American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family”.

Kennedy’s other written work includes two children's books on American history and another on Saint Francis of Assisi.