Every Kennedy family member that opposes RFK Jr.'s presidential campaign
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s large family keeps speaking against him.
Most of them have endorsed President Joe Biden.
Several have said Kennedy's long shot campaign will hurt Biden's reelection chances.
Since the day he declared for office, Democratic-turned-Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been chastised by his fellow Kennedys for being a threat to President Joe Biden's chances at reelection.
Many of them endorsed Biden over their relative during a campaign stop in Philadelphia in April. Kennedy, who recently suspended his campaign and threw his support behind Donald Trump, brushed it off in a lengthy social media post at the time highlighting his affection for them.
"I hear some of my family will be endorsing President Biden today," Kennedy posted. "I am pleased they are politically active — it's a family tradition. We are divided in our opinions but united in our love for each other."
Other family members have kept their support much more low-key.
"We love our brother. We love our party. And we love our president," Christopher Kennedy told Politico shortly after RFK Jr. decided to run as an Independent.
Five of Kennedy's siblings issued a joint statement on Friday after he suspended his campaign and said he was supporting Trump.
"We want an American filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride," the statement read. "We believe in Harris and Walz. Our brother Bobby's decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story."
Read on to see how various members of the Kennedy family have spoken out against RFK:
Kerry Kennedy
Kerry Kennedy, Robert's sister, endorsed President Joe Biden during a rally in April that featured other family members, arguing that Biden and Trump are the only two candidates that matter in 2024.
"President Biden has been a champion of all the rights and freedoms that my father and uncle stood for," Kerry Kennedy said, adding that "The Kennedy family endorses Joe Biden for president."
Kerry Kennedy has been harshly critical of her brother, including when he shared the unfounded claim that COVID-19 was "ethnically targeted" to avoid Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people. Kennedy later said his comments were not antisemitic.
"I strongly condemn my brother's deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting," Kerry Kennedy said at the time. "His statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stand for, with our 50+-year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination."
Kerry Kennedy is directly involved in shaping her father's legacy as president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a nonprofit organization. She also wrote a 2018 book about RFK's legacy that is based on interviews with celebrities like Bono and world leaders like President Barack Obama.
Joseph Kennedy II
Former Congressman Joseph Kennedy II said he and some of his family members would continue to express their disagreement with his brother's presidential campaign.
"We cannot do anything that in any way, strips even one vote from President Biden. You put the name Kennedy on the ballot and Democrats are going to feel torn," Kennedy II told reporters after the Biden endorsement rally in April. "We are trying to make them understand that this is an issue that they do not have to feel torn about."
Kennedy II represented Massachusetts in Congress for over a decade, until 1999. Before leaving Washington, he ruled out a gubernatorial run. Kennedy also declined to run for the so-called "Kennedy seat" in the US Senate after the death of his uncle, Ted Kennedy, in 2009.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has also endorsed Biden.
"Honored to stand with my family as we endorse Joe Biden who will continue to protect our rights our freedom and our democracy in this moment of deepest peril," she wrote on X after Biden campaign event that featured some of the family members.
Townsend made history in 1994 when she was elected Maryland's first female lieutenant governor in a close election. She had previously become the first Kennedy to lose a general election when she lost a bid to represent Maryland in Congress in 1984. Townsend was just 16 years old when her father was assassinated. Secret Service agents accompanied her, RFK Jr. and Joseph Kennedy II, as they flew out to California.
Townsend sided with her brother in a push to reopen the investigation into RFK's assassination, concluding that Sirhan Sirhan may not have fired the fatal shots.
"Bobby makes a compelling case," she told The Washington Post in 2018. "I think [the investigation] should be reopened."
Rory Kennedy
Rory, the youngest of RFK Sr. and Ethel Kennedy's 11 children, has repeatedly denounced her brother's campaign.
"Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment," Kennedy said in a statement when RFK Jr. announced his intention to run as an independent presidential candidate.
Kennedy was joined by three other siblings, Kerry Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy III, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Rory Kennedy was born six months after her father's assassination. She is a documentary filmmaker. Her latest work is "The Synanon Fix" a TV series for Max that explores a drug rehabilitation program that turned into what some call a cult. Kennedy was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in 2005's "Street Fight" a documentary about Cory Booker's early rise through an unsuccessful Newark mayoral race.
Joseph Kennedy III
Former Congressman Joseph Kennedy III told NBC News that his uncle's campaign is "likely to divert support away from President Biden and end up increasing support for Donald Trump."
Kennedy III left Congress after failing to oust Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey in a 2020 primary. He was viewed as a rising star in the Democratic Party and even delivered the party's official response to Trump's 2018 State of the Union. He is the most recent Kennedy to have served in Congress. Biden appointed him as United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland in 2022.
Stephen Kennedy Smith
Stephen Kennedy Smith has said that his uncle "does not have the vision, values, or judgment of RFK Sr. "
"I have known RFK Jr. since I was a child. We attended Harvard together and my father ran Senator Robert F Kennedy's campaign for Senate in 1964 and his presidential campaign in 1968," Smith wrote on LinkedIn. "When RFK Jr decided to run he didn't call me to ask for help because he knew I would oppose his candidacy due to his misguided stands on issues, his poor judgement, and tenuous relationship with the truth."
Smith has served as a US Senate staffer, lectured at Harvard, and is a philanthropist and entrepreneur. He also wrote a book about JFK with historian Douglas Brinkley, "JFK: A Vision for America."
Bobby Shriver
Bobby Shriver, a nephew of RFK Sr., was among the family members who slammed a pro-RFK Jr. super PAC for using images of the late attorney general.
"My cousin's Super Bowl ad used our uncle's faces- and my Mother's," Shriver wrote on X. "She would be appalled by his deadly health care views. Respect for science, vaccines, & health care equity were in her DNA."
RFK Jr. apologized for the ad but promoted it on X. He later named one of the major donors to that super PAC, Nicole Shanahan, as his running mate.
Shriver, who briefly served as mayor of Santa Monica, California, cofounded (RED) which works with major brands to raise money to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Jack Schlossberg
Jack Schlossberg, JFK's only grandson, has gone after his cousin for invoking the family's famous image for "personal gain" amid the presidential campaign.
"He's trading in on Camelot celebrity conspiracy theories and conflict for personal gain and fame. I've listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president," Schlossberg wrote on Instagram. "What I do know is his candidacy is an embarrassment. Let's not be distracted again by somebody's vanity project."
Schlossberg's comments are notable as his mother, Caroline Kennedy, cannot engage directly with the presidential campaign due to long-held interpretations of how federal law restricts political statements by US diplomats. Biden appointed Kennedy as US Ambassador to Australia.
A slew of other Kennedys have endorsed Biden.
Other family members have not been as outspoken in their criticism of RFK Jr., but they have announced that they will support Biden this November.
According to multiple reports, they are Beth Kennedy, Christopher Kennedy, Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Vicki Strauss Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy Meltzer, Max Meltzer, Ted Kennedy Jr., Peter McKelvy, and Rebeca McKelvy.
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