As members of the Kennedy family joined President Biden in Philadelphia to support his re-election and denounce the presidential candidacy of the most famous Kennedy of this generation, Robert F. argued the point. his sister Kelly;
“Almost all of Joe and Rose Kennedy's grandchildren support Joe Biden,” Kennedy said from the stage, looking aside from her brother and Biden. “That's right. The Kennedy family supports Joe Biden for president.”
This is not the first time that Kennedy, the seventh child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, has been the subject of family backlash against her older brother. Kennedy has distanced himself from his family as he remains skeptical of the coronavirus vaccine and has emerged as a propagator of conspiracy theories about his father's assassination. She intends to carry on this legacy from her brother, whom she has cherished for many years, and to preserve a proud and private family tradition that is disappearing from the political scene.
Ms. Kennedy's siblings credit her outsized role in large part to the love she has shown for her brother and the love she feels since they were children playing on the family's property in Hickory Hill, Virginia. It is said that this is the result of disappointment. now. This also has a political aspect. She claims her brother's insurrection movement threatens Biden's re-election, and raises the possibility that her family will shoulder some of the blame if Donald J. Trump returns to the White House next year. I am aware that there is.
“I love Bobby,” she said in an interview. “It’s heartbreaking to be in this position.”
But Kerry Kennedy's decision to help lead what is inevitably a messy effort for family members comes after Robert F. Kennedy, the organization he founded in the wake of his father's death in 1968 and led for 15 years.・It also reflects concerns about the legacy of the Kennedy Institute for Human Rights.
As the organization's president, she has championed causes that mirror her father's, including international human rights, combating health care disparities, and immigration advocacy. In some cases, her positions supported by her brother, particularly her opposition to COVID-19 vaccinations, are in direct contradiction to the organization's mission.
“Mr. Kerry feels a special burden in running for office, and that burden has had a negative impact on her work,” said Christopher G. Kennedy, one of her brothers. “She has supported hundreds of human rights activists around the world. Kennedy's ability to be associated with outlandish thinking, outlandish ideas, and unsound judgment will diminish her effectiveness.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declined to comment on his sister's role in the Biden campaign. “I don't think I'll get involved in this controversy,” he said in a text message.
It's been 56 years since Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. But Ms Kennedy, 64, said many people, especially the younger generation, no longer differentiate between fathers and sons who share the same name.
“Anybody can look at my X feed or the reactions on Instagram and see there's a lot of confusion out there,” she said in an interview. “When organizations disagree on issues such as vaccine safety, the role of HIV in causing AIDS, why people are transgender, and the role of platforms in curbing disinformation, to name a few, I had to make it clear.”
The family does not share views on the impact of Kennedy's brother's candidacy. “The mistake the media makes is thinking his popularity is based solely on his relationship with his family,” said his other brother, Douglas H. Kennedy. He said he was not involved in his siblings' protests because he works as a reporter for Fox News. “I don't think his supporters are influenced by the concerns of his siblings or cousins. His supporters believe in his message. I don't think it will have a big impact on their support even if some people disagree with him. think”
The Biden campaign disagrees. If Mr. Kennedy's brother remains on the ballot, there are moves to place him and other family members in battleground states in the coming months. “I told the Biden campaign that we would campaign wherever they wanted,” she said.
Biden campaign officials say polling shows many people don't know much about Kennedy or what he stands for, and that Kennedy's family could help fill the gap. He said it was particularly effective.
““We are honored to have the support of the Kennedy family and look forward to working with them to spread the message of how the president continues the Kennedy family's legacy through his campaign.” campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said.
Mr. Kennedy is used to being in the spotlight. Her marriage to Andrew M. Cuomo in 1990, before he was elected governor of New York, was the merging of two of the nation's most famous political families. The photo was taken at the church in Washington, D.C. where John F. Kennedy's funeral was held in 1963, with a film crew and photographers waiting outside. The relationship ended in divorce 15 years later, and details of the breakup were spread in the tabloids. She did not remarry.
Seven years after the end of her marriage, Kennedy was arrested and charged with drunk driving in upstate Westchester County, New York. She said she had accidentally taken a sleeping pill before getting in the car. The jury took less than an hour to find her not guilty, but the case once again made her life tabloid fodder.
Mr. Kennedy persevered, but unlike in recent years, he largely stayed out of the public eye.
Her passionate appeal to Mr. Biden – a tone of voice familiar to anyone who has seen her father or uncle – was echoed by President John F. Kennedy's grandson, Jack Schlossberg, 31. This was in sharp contrast to a series of mocking Instagram posts by the former various accents to belittle his cousin as dishonest and unintelligent.
Mr Kennedy's posts on social media include clips of his father's speeches, paeans to human rights leaders such as John Lewis, and tributes to his 96-year-old mother. (“Mom is a master at defending the rights of others,” she wrote recently.) Ms. Kennedy said she had not spoken to Mr. Schlossberg about Mr. Schlossberg’s post.
Ms. Kennedy now finds herself on the cusp of an unusual situation for a family that prides itself on keeping internal dissent out of the public eye.
“They've always learned from JFK's generation that all the bad things in the family should be kept in the family,” said Lawrence Riemer, who has written a series of books about the Kennedy family. . “It ends here.”
But through it all, the family has tried to stay together. “This is not about Bobby. This is about Biden,” said her sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. “We have been supporting Biden for a long time.”
Kerry Kennedy said she still sees her brother at family events, including at the Kennedy mansion in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. “Bobby and she went to the Cape several times last summer,” she said. “We were both in Aspen on vacation and we were sitting around the lunch table. We text – we do family text message exchanges – so there's a back-and-forth. But… He didn’t call me for advice.”
Christopher Kennedy said he frequently shared his concerns about what he was doing with his brother. “People come up to me in the grocery store and say, 'Why are you letting my brother get away with this?'” he said. “I think if Bobby caused this kind of outcome, we would all be blamed.”
“Like all true believers, I say he is untouchable,” he said. “Hardening of the shell is definitely occurring.”
Mr. Kennedy said he was resigned to the fact that his brother was winning the election and even suggested that he had come to accept or at least understand Mr. Kennedy's campaign efforts this time around.
“After all, why is he doing this?” she said. “I'm there for the same reason, because we both believe the risks are high.”