Is RFK Jr an embarrassment for the Kennedys or a gamechanger in the US election? America’s royal family has a new challenger

Published

6 months ago

November 26, 2023

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President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, 60 years ago. I do not remember that fateful day on 22 November 1963, as I was just four years old.

But I do remember the summer day, five years later in 1968, when his brother – former US attorney general and would be president, Robert F “Bobby” Kennedy – was shot dead in that tumultuous election year.

Over the decades since their deaths the two brothers, often referred to just by their initials – JFK and RFK, have never been forgotten.

In the United States, and much of the Western democratic world, they have assumed iconic status in death. Their family members left behind, have tried to pick up their political legacies.

The Kennedy name has been the biggest brand in American politics, public interest in its members sharpened by numerous tragedies and scandals.

Some likened them to America’s royal family complete with symbolic castles at the “family compounds” in Massachusetts and Florida. Clan members seemed to occupy political office, almost as if by divine right.

But the dynastic vision has been fading at last. The myths, personalities and untimely deaths associated with the Kennedys are inevitably resonating less and less with contemporary electorates. There are currently none of the dynasty in elected state or national office.

In this election year, a maverick Kennedy is hoping to reverse all that. RFK’s 69-year-old son, who shares his father’s name, is running for president.

Whether Bobby Junior revives or further tarnishes the Kennedy brand is an open question. At least four of his 10 siblings say he is “an embarrassment”.

He has abandoned his family’s traditional allegiance to the Democratic party. He pulled out of the Democratic nomination contest to run as an independent candidate against both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, declaring “my intention is to spoil it for both of them”.

RFK junior is a self-styled environmentalist, an anti-vaxxer, and a supporter of the right to bear arms. He has embraced numerous conspiracy theories – even suggesting the CIA was involved in the assassinations of his father and uncle.

He marked the 60th anniversary of the death of President Kennedy by launching a petition to release the last of the government’s records relating to the shooting.

The National Archives says 99% of the material is already in the public domain, following orders from Presidents Trump and Biden. RFK junior retorted, “what is so embarrassing that they’re afraid to show the American public 60 years later?”.

Political dynasty

The Kennedys came to America as immigrants from Ireland. JFK was the first Roman Catholic US president. A grandfather of Joseph Kennedy was mayor of Boston in the 1890s.

Joe Kennedy was the patriarch of the clan and founder of the family fortune. His businesses flourished through the great depression and the prohibition of alcohol.

President Franklin Roosevelt gave Joseph P Kennedy I his highest rank in politics by appointing him a controversial ambassador to the UK.

He resigned during the Battle of Britain in 1940, suspected of Nazi sympathies, after commenting “democracy is finished in England”.

He was subsequently a major supporter of the anti-communist senator Joe McCarthy.

Today Joseph’s fortune is shared by several generations of direct descendants, who have mostly chosen to go into public service rather than business. Their net worth is put at several billion dollars.

Joe and his ambitious wife, Rose, had nine children, all now dead. The eldest son, Joe junior, a US Navy bomber pilot was killed above the English Channel in 1944. Their youngest daughter, Jean Kennedy Smith, was US ambassador to Ireland and died in 2020.

Rose and Joseph put their ambitions and their money behind their surviving sons – Jack, Bobby and Ted. All three became US senators and presidential candidates. Their siblings and descendants have often followed in their political footsteps – to a lesser and dwindling degree.

JFK was elected the US’s youngest-ever president. Young, rich, and beautiful, the Kennedys carefully curated their glamourous image in the White House.

Most famously Marilyn Monroe sang a seductive “Happy Birthday, Mr President” at the Madison Square Garden for his 45th birthday.

He and his stylish wife Jackie had three children. Patrick died in infancy. John junior and Caroline were still small when their father was killed.

Neil Diamond has said Caroline was the inspiration for his song “Sweet Caroline”. More recently Biden appointed Caroline Kennedy US ambassador to Japan, she was previously Obama’s ambassador to Australia.

John junior and his wife Carolyn Bessette were killed when a plane he was piloting crashed off Martha’s Vineyard in 1999.

The last powerful, world-famous Kennedy died in 2009. Edward Kennedy was the younger brother of JFK and RFK.

“Ted” died while still a US senator. Many viewed the liberal Democrat’s 47 years’ of continuous service as an attempt to expiate for what happened at Chappaquiddick in 1969.

A 29-year-old aide, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned in his car when Kennedy drove it off a bridge in Martha’s Vineyard. He survived but was later linked to a further scandal.

After a night partying with his son and nephew, his nephew, William Kennedy Smith, was charged and subsequently acquitted, of rape. Dr Smith went on to found the charity Physicians Against Land Mines (PALM).

Ted had three children, including Patrick who served eight terms as a congressman from Rhode Island before retiring with mental and addiction issues.

Of RFK’s 11 children, Joseph P Kennedy II was a six-term congressman for Massachusetts, Kathleen was a two-term lieutenant governor in Maryland and then there is RFK jnr.

Jack, Ted and Bobby’s sister Eunice married Sargent Shriver, who ran unsuccessfully in 1974 on the Democratic ticket as George McGovern’s vice-presidential candidate.

Their daughter Maria Shriver was married to the bodybuilder and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was twice elected Republican governor of California.

‘Challenger’

Joe Biden has always enjoyed a close relationship with his fellow Irish Americans. As well as sending Caroline Kennedy to Tokyo, he made Ted’s second wife, Victoria, ambassador to Austria.

President Biden also appointed Ted’s 23-year-old grandson, Joseph P Kennedy III, US special envoy to Northern Ireland.

Now Bobby is challenging Biden. In a favourability opinion poll this month by Harris, he topped the candidates list with a net rating of +27, ahead of Trump on +7 and Biden on -2.

That does not make him a likely winner in the US’s fundamentally two-party system, but third-party candidates matter because they often affect who becomes president.

In 2000, when Democrats won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College, the activist Ralph Nader scored 97,488 votes in Florida. If Al Gore had picked up just 537 of those votes he would have become president instead of George W Bush.

In 2016 Democrats again won the popular vote and lost the Electoral College.

In the swing states of Wisconsin and Michigan the Libertarian, Gary Johnson, and Green Party’s Jill Stein, each took multiples of the margin of votes by which Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump.

Kennedy’s current ratings around 20% are on a par with the businessman Ross Perot, the strongest third force of modern times.

Perot won 19% and 8% of the popular vote respectively in 1992 and 1996, arguably assisting Bill Clinton’s election.

With typical entitlement, Kennedy says he is confident he will win the battle against Trump and Biden’s lawyer to “get on the ballot of every state”.

If he succeeds, polls suggest he takes slightly more votes from Trump than from Biden. That could be enough to change who wins in closely fought key states.

Trump has called Bobby a Biden “plant”. The Biden campaign is worried that the Kennedy name could cost Democratic votes.

They note Bobby’s visit to Trump’s White House and the encouragement he has received from Steve Bannon and alternative media outlets such as Fox News, Joe Rogan and Jordan Petersen.

Plugging into the mood of populist discontent, Bobby is appealing for votes from “people who are willing to question orthodoxy”.

As embodied by JFK and RFK, the Kennedy name is one of the most revered in American politics. Now yet another descendant is attempting simultaneously both to exploit and to escape from being a Kennedy.

US

Donald Trump trial star witness admits stealing from ex-US president’s company

Published

4 hours ago

May 20, 2024

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Donald Trump trial star witness admits stealing from ex-US president's company

A former lawyer for Donald Trump has admitted to jurors in the Republican’s hush money trial that he stole tens of thousands of dollars from his then-boss’s company.

The landmark trial returned with defence cross-examination of Michael Cohen, whose testimony last week directly tied Trump to the alleged hush money scheme.

Defence lawyers have questioned Cohen for hours about his criminal history and past lies to paint him as a serial liar who is on a revenge campaign aimed at taking down Trump.

While being pressed by defence lawyer Todd Blanche, Cohen admitted he pocketed cash that was supposed to be reimbursement for a $50,000 payment he claimed he had shelled out to a technology firm.

But Mr Cohen actually gave the technology firm just $20,000, he said.

“So you stole from the Trump Organisation,” Mr Blanche asked.

“Yes, sir,” Mr Cohen replied.

Mr Cohen said he never paid the Trump Organisation back. He has never been charged with stealing from Trump’s company.

He is the last prosecution witness, and it is not yet clear whether Trump’s lawyers will call any witnesses, let alone the presumptive Republican presidential nominee himself.

Jurors could begin deliberating as soon as next week to decide whether Trump is guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first criminal trial of a former US president.

The charges stem from internal Trump Organisation records where payments to Cohen were marked as legal expenses, when prosecutors say they were really reimbursements for porn star Stormy Daniels’ hush money payment.

Trump has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers say there was nothing criminal about the Daniels deal or the way Cohen was paid.

“There’s no crime,” Trump told reporters after arriving at the courthouse on Monday. “We paid a legal expense. You know what it’s marked down as? A legal expense.”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is expected to rest its case once Mr Cohen is off the stand, but prosecutors could call rebuttal witnesses if Trump’s lawyers put on witnesses of their own.

Judge Juan M Merchan has said he expects closing arguments to happen on 28 May.

Cohen is the prosecutors’ most important witness, but he is also vulnerable to attack.

The now-disbarred attorney has admitted on the witness stand to previously lying under oath and other falsehoods, many of which he claims were meant to protect Trump.

Cohen served prison time after pleading guilty to various federal charges, including lying to Congress and a bank and engaging in campaign finance violations related to the hush money scheme.

And he has made millions of dollars off critical books about the former president, whom he regularly slams on social media in often profane terms.

US

P Diddy: Stars react to video showing rapper attacking Cassie Ventura in hotel hallway

Published

4 hours ago

May 20, 2024

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P Diddy: Stars react to video showing rapper attacking Cassie Ventura in hotel hallway

Stars have hit out at rapper P Diddy following the release of CCTV footage showing him attacking singer Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016.

Warning: This story includes images readers may find distressing

The video, which was obtained by CNN, was shot on 5 March eight years ago and shows the 54-year-old – whose real name is Sean Combs – shirtless and wearing just a white towel and brightly coloured socks, punching and kicking Ventura.

The R&B singer, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura, was his protege and girlfriend at the time.

The footage also shows Combs shoving and dragging her across the floor, as well as throwing a glass vase in her direction.

It closely resembles the description of an incident at the now-closed InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles described in a lawsuit filed by Cassie last year.

Commenting on the video on X, formerly known as Twitter, actress Emily Ratajkowski, wrote: “Monster”.

Fellow rapper 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, shared the video, writing sarcastically: “Now I’m sure Puffy didn’t do it, he is innocent this proves nothing! This is what his lawyers are gonna say, God help us all.”

Jackson also re-posted a screenshot of a statement shared by Combs in December last year, denying allegations against him and accusing those making them of “looking for a quick payday”.

50 Cent wrote: “The lie detector test has determined this was a lie…”

He also shared a statement from LA police which called the footage “extremely disturbing and difficult to watch,” but explained that it happened too long ago to be prosecuted.

California law has a one-year statute of limitations for assault.

The husband of Ventura, Alex Fine, shared a lengthy statement on Instagram titled “Letter to women and children,” calling out men who perpetrate violence against women.

‘Men who hurt women hate women’

He wrote: “Men who hit women aren’t men. Men who enable it and protect those people aren’t men…

“Hold the women in your life with the utmost regard. Men who hurt women hate women.”

The personal trainer also shared the number of a domestic abuse helpline, urging those who need help to call.

Meanwhile, lawyers representing Ventura branded Combs’s apology “pathetic,” after he shared a short video on social media on Sunday, saying he was “truly sorry,” and was “disgusted” by his own behaviour.

‘Disingenuous words’

Meredith Firetog, who is a partner at Wigdor LLP, said in a statement: “Combs’ most recent statement is more about himself than the many people he has hurt.

“When Cassie and multiple other women came forward, he denied everything and suggested that his victims were looking for a payday.

“That he was only compelled to ‘apologize’ once his repeated denials were proven false shows his pathetic desperation, and no one will be swayed by his disingenuous words.”

‘Leave god and mercy out of this’

US singer and reality star Aubrey O’Day, who previously worked with Combs, also hit out at Combs’s apology video, writing on X: “Diddy did not apologize to Cassie. He apologized to the world for seeing what he did… Leave god and mercy out of this, they aren’t present here, and you know it.”

It is the first time Combs has responded directly to allegations of physical and sexual violence levelled at him in recent months.

Multiple claims

In March, his homes in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by Homeland Security as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation by federal authorities in New York.

In April, Combs was named in a lawsuit that alleges his son sexually assaulted a woman working on a yacht chartered by his father.

Ventura, who began dating Combs a few years after meeting him in 2005, and split with him in 2019, sued him in November, alleging she was trafficked, raped, plied with drugs and beaten by Combs over a 10-year period.

The lawsuit claimed he forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while he filmed them. The case was settled the day after it was filed.

Combs has previously denied the allegations in the lawsuits and his lawyers have said he denies any wrongdoing.

US

Man jailed for life for murdering wife by burying her alive in Arizona

Published

8 hours ago

May 20, 2024

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Man jailed for life for murdering wife by burying her alive in Arizona

An Arizona man who buried his wife alive in a hand-dug grave near their home has been jailed for life.

Seven years after the killing, David Pagniano pleaded guilty to murdering his wife before his trial was due to start and allowed a judge to determine his sentence without a plea agreement.

The 62-year-old was handed a life sentence without the possibility of parole, meaning he will die in prison.

He was also sentenced on 9 May to 16-and-a-half years for kidnapping, forgery and fraud, according to the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office.

“My office pursued the death penalty in this case because of the horrific circumstances surrounding the abduction and murder of a young mother,” County Attorney Dennis McGrane said in a statement.

Authorities said 39-year-old Sandra Pagniano vanished while she was in the process of divorcing her husband in May 2017.

They said the pair were separated but still living in the same home with their two young daughters.

Ms Pagniano’s body was found bound and gagged in packing tape inside a grave in a rural area north of Prescott.

The county medical examiner’s office confirmed she had been buried alive.

Victim may have been conscious for up to five minutes

Officials said evidence showed she vigorously struggled while she was in the grave and may have been conscious for up to five minutes.

In addition, mobile phone evidence showed Pagniano was in the gravesite area days before his wife went missing and the night of the kidnapping.

Forensic examination of notes revealed they were fake

Detectives recovered two notes that were filed in the divorce case following Mrs Pagniano’s disappearance, purportedly written by her.

The notes said she was leaving her husband and giving him her vehicles, house and custody of their children.

But authorities said a forensic examination of the notes revealed they were written by Pagniano.

A grand jury indicted him on a charge of first-degree murder after his wife’s body was discovered in a remote area 10 miles (16km) northwest of the family home near Prescott in north-central Arizona.