On Wednesday night, Kerry Kennedy had returned to her Las Vegas hotel after making three campaign stops for Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
She is the daughter of former U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the niece of former President John F. Kennedy., The two assassinated brothers said campaigning as Democratic candidates was a way to counter independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s actions last week in endorsing Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump.
“I called the campaign on a Friday and said I wanted to work with them, and they said, ‘Would you like to get on a plane to Phoenix on Tuesday morning?’ I flew to Phoenix, I flew to Nevada, and now I’m in Nevada.“ “There are countless Kennedys who want to and are willing to work together on this,” Kerry Kennedy told USA Today.
Except for journalist Douglas Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy said she spoke for her siblings’ disappointment that their brother had sided with Trump..
“Donald Trump is antithetical to everything our family believes. I distance myself from Trump and reject everything Bobby has said and done because I see it as a rejection of our family values and everything I have worked hard to build my life for,” Kennedy said. “Frankly, it’s a rejection of everything Bobby worked hard to build his life for.”
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“They are confused by my decision.”Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he understands the disappointment in his family over his support of Donald Trump.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 70, was a prominent environmental and water protection lawyer for nearly three decades and served as president of Riverkeeper, a New York-based nonprofit that protects the Hudson River. His support for Trump, who has rolled back more than 100 environmental regulations, has puzzled his family.
Kennedy Jr. said in a virtual speech on Friday that he plans to remove his name from the ballot in about 10 states “where my presence would be detrimental to the campaign” before endorsing Trump.
But Kennedy Jr. tried to withdraw his candidacy in battleground states after ballots had already been certified, the deadline to withdraw had passed, or it was not an option to do so: His name will appear on the ballot in Wisconsin and Michigan, and absentee ballots with his name on them have already been printed and will be mailed to voters in North Carolina, another key battleground state, starting next week.
An Ipsos poll this month gave Kennedy Jr. 4% approval rating, and Federal Election Commission filings released this week show his campaign is running out of cash: As of late last month, Kennedy Jr.’s campaign was nearly $3.5 million in debt and had only $3.9 million on hand.
Kerry Kennedy on Trump: ‘He’s a threat to most fundamental rights’
Kennedy Jr. has been a controversial figure for years, having promoted conspiracy theories throughout his third-party campaign, including that the coronavirus was genetically engineered to target certain races and that mass shootings are linked to prescription drugs. Earlier this week, Trump added Kennedy Jr. to his transition team.
Kerry Kennedy said Harris and Waltz are defenders of the values her family has long fought for, while Trump is the “opposite.”
“He is a threat to most of the fundamental rights and freedoms that are at the core of who we are as Americans,” Kerry Kennedy said, adding that if her father and uncle were alive today, they would have hated everything about Trump.
“His lies, his selfishness, his anger, his cynicism, his hatred, his racism, his fascist sympathies, his willful misinformation about vaccines, his felony convictions,” she said. “Kamala Harris is comfortable taking a tough stance against anyone who poses a threat to the rights of Americans.”
When asked when she last spoke to her brother, Kerry Kennedy said he attended her wedding to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s daughter in July. “But we text all the time. I texted him on Friday (after he endorsed Trump).”
When asked if she knew what was going on with her brother, she replied, “I’m not a psychiatrist.”
Contributor: Joey Garrison, USA TODAY
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswami is White House correspondent for USA Today. You can follow her on X (old Twitter) @SwapnaVenugopal.
