In a letter Tuesday urging the Senate to reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination for health and human services secretary, Caroline Kennedy referred to her cousin as a "predator."
Caroline Kennedy, a former U.S. ambassador to Australia and the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, said RFK Jr. was unqualified to lead HHS, which oversees 13 federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Among her many criticisms in the letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Kennedy said that “siblings and cousins who Bobby encouraged down the path of substance abuse suffered addiction, illness and death.”
She also accused her cousin of lacking any relevant experience for the role and said he holds “dangerous and willfully misinformed” views on vaccines. She read the letter aloud in a video posted on X by her son, Jack Schlossberg.
“Bobby is addicted to attention and power,” Caroline Kennedy said, using her cousin’s nickname. “Bobby preys on the desperation of parents of sick children — vaccinating his own kids while building a following by hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not respond to shouted questions from reporters Tuesday about the letter or his confirmation hearing this week. A spokesperson told NBC News he would not be commenting.
He is set to appear Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee for the first of two hearings.
RFK Jr. is the founder of Children’s Health Defense, a prominent anti-vaccine activist group. He has repeatedly questioned the safety and effectiveness of routine vaccinations, such as those for measles, hepatitis B and the flu.
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In her letter, Caroline Kennedy referred to a 2019 outbreak of measles in Samoa as evidence of the consequences of her cousin’s anti-vaccine rhetoric. Samoa’s director general of health has accused Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of waging a disinformation campaign that stoked vaccine hesitancy at the time, though Kennedy has denied any responsibility for the outbreak.
The letter also notes RFK Jr.’s intent to continue collecting fees over lawsuits against the pharmaceutical company Merck. The suits allege that the company failed to properly warn consumers about side effects associated with its human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which reduces the risk of cervical cancer. The CDC says the vaccine has a “reassuring safety record.”
“Bobby is willing to profit and enrich himself by denying access to a vaccine that can prevent almost all forms of cervical cancer,” Caroline Kennedy wrote.
She also raised concerns about her cousin’s “personal qualities.”
“His basement, his garage and his dorm room were the centers of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks,” Caroline Kennedy said. “It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence.”
RFK Jr., whose father was a senator when he was assassinated while he was running for president in 1968, ran for president himself as a Democrat and then as an independent, but he suspended his campaign over the summer. Shortly after, he endorsed Donald Trump and joined his transition team. In November, Trump said he was going to nominate RFK Jr. for HHS secretary.
Caroline Kennedy said she had refrained from speaking publicly about her cousin over the past year due to her role as a former ambassador and a desire not to comment on family members. However, she said in the letter that her father and other family members would be “disgusted” by her cousin’s actions.
“Bobby expropriated my father’s image and distorted President Kennedy’s legacy to advance his own failed presidential campaign, and then groveled to Donald Trump for a job,” she said.
“Bobby continues to grandstand off my father’s assassination and that of his own father,” she added. “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone who is willing to exploit their own painful family tragedies for publicity would be put in charge of America’s life and death situations.”
