‘A sad ending to a sad story’: Kennedy family criticises RFK Jr after he endorses Trump
The Kennedy family has hit out at their sibling Robert F Kennedy Jr for endorsing Donald Trump in the US presidential race, calling it a “betrayal” of their values.
Mr Kennedy, also known as RFK Jr, announced he was suspending his independent campaign for the presidency to lend his support to the Republican candidate in certain states.
“In about 10 battleground states where my presence would be a spoiler, I’m going to remove my name, and I’ve already started the process,” Mr Kennedy said during a news conference in Phoenix.
RFK Jr, whose father Bobby Kennedy was assassinated as he ran for president back in 1968, said the Democratic Party was no longer “champions of the constitution” and had departed “dramatically” from the “core values” he grew up with.
Mr Kennedy, 70, cited free speech, the war in Ukraine and “a war on our children” as among the reasons he would try to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states.
“These are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump,” he said.
Mr Kennedy is also the nephew of former Democratic US president John F Kennedy, who was killed in 1963.
RFK Jr was 14 when his father, the former US attorney general Robert F Kennedy, JFK’s brother, was killed.
Robert F Kennedy in August 1964. Pic: AP
In response to RFK Jr’s announcement, his brothers and sisters shared a statement, saying: “We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride.
“We believe in Harris and Walz.
“Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear.
“It is a sad ending to a sad story.”
Kamala Harris addressing the DNC this week. Pic: AP
‘In an honest system, I would have won’
RFK Jr hit out at the media and the Democrats during his announcement, while saying his campaign team had “pulled off a miracle” by making him a presidential candidate.
“You showed everyone democracy is still possible here,” he said. “Today I’m here to tell you I will not allow your efforts to go to waste.”
Mr Kennedy added he believed that in an “honest system” he would have won the election.
John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Pic: AP
He criticised the Democratic Party, saying it had waged “legal warfare” against him and Mr Trump, who is running against vice president Kamala Harris to be elected in the presidential vote on 5 November.
Read more:
Who is Robert F Kennedy Jr?
RFK Jr claims worm ate part of his brain
Video shows Kennedy telling bizarre bear story
During his speech, Mr Kennedy also took aim at Ms Harris, who officially accepted her Democratic nomination yesterday, arguing that she had ducked scrutiny and interviews.
He also said of Democrats: “Who needs a policy when you have Trump to hate?”
Mr Kennedy is expected to publicly endorse Donald Trump for president. Pic: Reuters
According to Sky News’ partner network NBC, Mr Kennedy will be speaking at a Trump rally later today.
News of him endorsing the 78-year-old former Republican leader comes after Mr Trump appeared to try and woo Mr Kennedy last month.
In footage shared by Mr Kennedy’s son, Mr Trump says: “I would love you to do something – and I think it would be so good for you and so big for you,” apparently referring to the 2024 election race.
Mr Trump added: “We’re gonna win,” to which Mr Kennedy said: “Yeah.”
Reports of Mr Kennedy’s decision emerged earlier in court documents filed by the 70-year-old’s campaign team.
A Pennsylvania court filing asked to remove him from the state’s ballot, according to the AP.
And on Thursday, Arizona officials said Mr Kennedy filed paperwork to remove himself from the presidential ballot there.
Anti-vax views and turn against Democrats
Despite his family’s history with the Democratic Party, RFK Jr was running as an independent, after leaving the Democrats in October.
Mr Kennedy has made a name for himself as an anti-vaxxer during the pandemic – and beforehand.
Pic: Reuters
As well as sharing disinformation online, Mr Kennedy became a regular on the anti-mandate rally circuit during the coronavirus response.
At one event, he compared the US government’s use of vaccine mandates to laws in Nazi Germany.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
“Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did,” he told the crowd at a march in January 2022.
“Today, the mechanisms are being put in place that will make it so none of us can run, and none of us can hide.”
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
Read more from Sky News:
Kate’s ’emotional’ words for tearful tennis star
Music festival cancelled as headliner pulls out
Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Who is being targeted in Trump’s immigration raids?
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
Read more:
Trump announces 30% tariff on imports from EU
President threatens to revoke US comedian’s citizenship
Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike