The daughter of assassinated President John F. Kennedy has slammed the ‘dangerous’ views of her right-wing, anti-vaxxer cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr in a speech to Australian media.
US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy initially even refused to mention RFK Jr by name when she addressed the National Press Club in Canberra on Monday.
One reporter asked Kennedy whether Australia should be worried about intelligence-sharing with the US after Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was alleged to have ties with Russia.
‘Let’s see what happens with President Trump’s appointments,’ said Kennedy.
‘They’ve been making waves, headlines. There’s another one who’s nominated for Health and Human Services.’
The audience laughed at her dismissively calling her cousin ‘another one’ after President-elect Trump picked RFK Jr to run the key US department, which also oversees vaccines.
But Ms Kennedy went even further shortly after when she was asked directly about RFK Jr’s controversial views on vaccines and whether they might become more mainstream through his proposed role in the Trump administration.
In a break from convention – where ambassadors aren’t supposed to comment on domestic political divisions – she gave a frank assessment of her relative.
‘I’m a sitting ambassador, and I’m not supposed to comment on politics, but, umm, now you’re asking me to also comment on families – that’s really a lot,’ she said.
‘Yes, I think Bobby Kennedy’s views on vaccines are dangerous.
‘But I don’t think that most Americans share them, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
‘I grew up with him, so I’ve known all this for a long time and others are just getting to know him.’
She said that her family was united in its support for the public health sector in the US, but that her cousin has got a ‘different set of views’.
‘My uncle, Teddy [Kennedy], spent 50 years fighting for affordable health care in the Senate, and it’s something that our whole family is so proud of.
‘The Affordable Care Act was built on the work that my uncle had done over many years.’
She added: ‘I would say that our family is united in terms of our support for the public health sector and infrastructure, and has the greatest admiration for the medical profession in our country.
‘And Bobby Kennedy has got a different set of views.’
Robert F Kennedy Jr, who dropped his own run for the presidency as an independent to endorse Trump, is an outspoken anti-vaxxer.
He has made bizarre health claims over the years, including that worm ‘ate’ part of his brain, chemicals in water are making children question their gender identity and vaccines cause autism.
The wild declaration about the worm in his brain was uncovered in his divorce proceeding documents, following his split with Mary Richardson in 2012.
He also falsely claimed Covid vaccines had killed more people than all jabs ‘over the past 30 years’ in what experts called an ‘inaccurate representation of data’.
Experts fear his appointment, and the potential polices that could be implemented, could have consequences far beyond American shores, for instance with regards to vaccination rates.
Caroline Kennedy is the only surviving child of US president John F. Kennedy. RFK Jr. is her cousin and the son of John F. Kennedy’s brother, the US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.