Once again, a Kennedy may find themselves in a Cabinet role—but fresh allegations from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s cousin, just as his confirmation hearing approaches, threaten to fracture the well-known political legacy.
RFK Jr., previously an independent presidential candidate and selected by President Donald Trump to oversee the Department of Health and Human Services, is set for a confirmation hearing with the Senate Committee on Finance on Wednesday—yet his relatives have consistently voiced their opposition to his nomination.
On Tuesday, Caroline Kennedy, RFK Jr.’s cousin and daughter of John F. Kennedy—who served as the US ambassador to Australia during the election period—finally expressed her stance in a letter to senators, which was reviewed by the Daily Beast.
Caroline mentioned that she had refrained from publicly commenting until now, considering their close-knit group of 28 cousins who have endured much together. However, as RFK Jr. aligns himself with the Trump administration, she felt compelled to raise her voice.
She labeled her cousin a “predator” and claimed he was “not fit” for the position. “He possesses no relevant experience in government, finance, management, or medicine,” she stated. “His opinions on vaccines are harmful and deliberately misleading. Such details should be enough to invalidate his candidacy.”
Caroline further clarified her accusations by stating, “Bobby exploits the desperation of parents with ill children—immunizing his own while hypocritically urging others against vaccination.”
She also highlighted his supposed link to an anti-vaccine organization that had convened in Samoa shortly before a fatal measles outbreak occurred in 2019.
While acknowledging her cousin’s “strength” and “discipline” in overcoming substance abuse, she accused him of leading family members down similar paths. “Siblings and cousins who you influenced towards substance misuse faced addiction, illness, and death, while Bobby continues to misrepresent, deceive, and manipulate his way through life,” Caroline wrote.
Kennedy’s journey of battling addiction following his father’s tragic assassination in 1968 is well-known; however, Caroline alleged that “his basement, garage, and dorm room served as hotspots for drug activity.”
A seasoned falconer, Kennedy’s past encounters with wildlife made headlines during his campaign—including an unusual incident involving a dead bear carcass left in Central Park, as well as a revived story of decapitating a deceased whale on a family vacation.
On Tuesday, Caroline contributed to this narrative with her own account of how he fed his raptors. “He took pleasure in demonstrating how he blended baby chickens and mice to feed his hawks,” Caroline remarked. “It was often a disturbing spectacle of cruelty and devastation.”
In her correspondence to senators, Caroline reiterated her family’s longstanding concerns. “We are a close-knit family, and expressing these sentiments isn’t simple. It was equally challenging to remain silent last year while Bobby exploited my father’s image and misrepresented President Kennedy’s legacy for his own failed campaign, then sought a position under Donald Trump,” she expressed.
Members of the Kennedy family were previously outraged when a Super PAC aired a Super Bowl advertisement for his independent presidential campaign that echoed one run by his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, over 60 years ago.
“Bobby continues to capitalize on the tragedies of my father’s assassination and that of his own father,” Caroline lamented. “It is unfathomable to me that someone who is willing to manipulate their own family’s painful history for public relations could be entrusted with critical life-and-death responsibilities for America.”
Her son, the occasionally polarizing Jack Schlossberg, promptly expressed his support for Caroline. “I take great pride in my brave mother, who has lived a life marked by dignity, integrity, and service,” he wrote in a post on X, sharing a video of her reciting the letter she submitted.
Kennedy, a lifelong Democrat, first aimed for the party’s presidential nomination, confronting then-incumbent President Joe Biden. He withdrew his bid after facing substantial pushback from within the party and transitioned to an independent run for the presidency.
At this point, numerous members of the Kennedy family had publicly opposed their estranged relative, including his sisters Kerry and Rory, along with his brother Christopher.
In August, he once more surprised family members by halting his independent campaign and endorsing Trump.
Kerry, RFK Jr.’s sister and president of their father’s human rights organization, condemned the endorsement as a “betrayal of the values that our family and father cherished.”
In subsequent TV appearances, she described her brother’s shift toward the Republican candidate as “gaudy and obscene.” His brother, Max Kennedy, later wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times denouncing the endorsement.
However, in an interview with the Daily Beast in August, Kennedy dismissed the familial conflicts, attributing them to his relatives’ “strong opinions on certain matters.”
