While Joe Biden has yet to run, he has already been beaten by two contenders to succeed him in the 2024 Democratic primary. The latest, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has a familiar-sounding last name on the White House lawn. . At 69, he is the last member of a dynasty accustomed to tragic endings: his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in his third year in office (1963); and his father, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who was also a presidential candidate, was also the victim of a crime five years later.
His lawyer, John E. Sullivan, submitted yesterday the necessary paperwork to the Federal Election Commission, which accredits him as the second Democratic candidate for the presidential nomination. Last month, the writer Marianne Williamson, a self-help guru, did the same, who already tried to challenge Biden for the primaries in 2020, but she fell out of the race early due to lack of support.
Bobby Kennedy Jr. is an environmental lawyer who, in addition to being known for his lineage, is a famous anti-vaccine activist. In fact, he has gone on to promote claims linking vaccines to autism and is the founder of the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense. A position that he has not come to him from the coronavirus, but that he has defended for decades, and that he has used to criticize the federal government’s management of the pandemic.
Last year, he made a controversial speech at one of the largest anti-vaccine demonstrations in Washington, in which he invoked Nazi Germany: “At least in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland or hide in the attic like he did.” Anna Frank”. A year earlier, Instagram removed his account for “repeatedly sharing discredited claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.”
A year before COVID, three of his relatives – the sister, Kathleen Kennedy; brother, Joseph P. Kennedy; and his niece, Maeve Kennedy – denounced that Bobby was being “part of a disinformation campaign that is having heartbreaking and deadly consequences.” They did so in an article in the Politico magazine, in which they also argued that “he is one of the great defenders of the environment” and highlighted “his tireless activism against multinationals that have polluted our waters and endangered the families”. “However, he is wrong about the vaccines,” they sentenced.
Vows to end “corrupt merger between state and corporate power”
Last month, Kennedy Jr. announced in a tweet who was considering running in the primaries. “If it looks like I can raise the money and mobilize enough people to win, I will join the race,” he said, explaining that his “top priority” would be to end “the corrupt merger between state and corporate power that has ruined our economy, wrecked the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and stripped of our values and liberties.”
Help me decide whether to run for President. Visit https://t.co/EX83yh9O4O to volunteer or contribute. If it looks like I can raise the money and mobilize enough people to win, I’ll jump in the race. If I run, my top priority will be to end the corrupt https://t.co/ujEHehub9T…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) March 10, 2023
In his role as an environmental lawyer, Kennedy Kr. worked with an environmental organization, Riverkeeper, which led the cleanup and protection of the Hudson River. He was a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council from 1986 to 2017 and is a co-founder of a law firm, the Environmental Litigation Clinic, where he has prosecuted numerous governments and companies for polluting Long Island Sound, as well as the Hudson River. and its tributaries. In 2010, he won a lawsuit against ExxonMobil – one of the world’s most polluting oil companies -, which was forced to clean up tens of millions of barrels of oil leaked in Newtown Creek (New York).
In addition to his late father and uncle, his sister Kathleen (Maryland lieutenant governor from 1995 to 2003), his brothers Joseph (Massachusetts congressman from 1987 to 1999), and Chris Kennedy (unsuccessful 2018 Illinois gubernatorial candidate) have also been in politics. ), and his nephew Joe Kennedy III (former congressman from Massachusetts).
The second Democratic candidate arrives to animate a primary that, unlike the Republican ones, until now has been an absolute media desert. Biden is expected to announce his candidacy for a second term in the coming weeks, as he already ventured in a press conference that he would make the decision “in the spring.” Many inside and outside of his party believe he is too old to take the plunge (68% of US voters, according to a recent YouGov poll), but he remains without strong alternatives and ability to convince the majority of the electorate.
In the Republican Party, on the other hand, the list of contenders is much longer. The polls are led by former President Donald Trump, who after his impeachment has increased his prospects, although there are also three other official candidates: former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson. While none of them appear likely to challenge Trump for office, an emerging far-right political figure, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has yet to announce his candidacy, despite the fact that it is an open secret.