BOSTON, Massachusetts—Just a few miles from the homestead where his family’s dynasty in American politics began, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially launched his campaign for the presidency on April 19, becoming the first Kennedy since 1979 to make a bid for the White House and the third to challenge a sitting president.
“I come here to announce my candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the president of the United States,” Kennedy said, with cheers erupting in response from the crowd that gathered at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.
With his wife actress Cheryl Hines by his side, flanked by a row of American flags, Kennedy spoke to an audience of more than 1,000 attendees.
The crowd chanted “Bobby” and “RFK,” and stood to applaud several times, and listened intently as Kennedy spoke about the history of his family in American politics after escaping British oppression and potato famine back in their native country of Ireland.
Kennedy talked briefly, but fondly about his personal relationship with current President Joe Biden, saying his challenge to the incumbent is a matter of differences about issues like censorship and public health.
Unlike the political luminaries in his family, Kennedy is not known as much for his politics as he is for his advocacy for vaccine safety, which drew significant attention with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines.
His views on vaccine safety were part of his 2021 New York Times bestselling book “The Real Anthony Fauci.” He is also the founder of the non-profit activist group Children’s Health Defense.
Kennedy is looking to follow in the footsteps of his uncle the late John F. Kennedy who was elected in 1960 and served as President until his assassination in 1963. Kennedy’s father Robert F. Kennedy was campaigning for president against incumbent Lyndon Johnson when he was assassinated in 1968.
Richard Nixon ended up being the president-elect. Ted Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s uncle and a popular U.S. Senator who represented Massachusetts for 47 years until his death in 2009, made an unsuccessful bid for the Presidency, with sights set on unseating Jimmy Carter.
All three brothers grew up in a small house in Brookline, Massachusetts, which today is a registered landmark and known as the birthplace of John F. Kennedy.
Outside of vaccines, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is every bit a Democrat, with staunch support of LGBT causes and abbortion.
Kennedy, named one of New York Times “Heroes of the Planet,” is also highly celebrated among climate change theorists, environmentalists, as well as human rights advocates for his efforts against carbon emissions, negotiating better homeland treaties for indigenous Americans, and protecting threatened watersheds.
Disgruntled Biden Voters
The prospect of another Kennedy in The White House drew an diverse crowd to the historic Park Plaza Hotel in Boston.
Among was them Linda Brierdy, who traveled from Connecticut. The Catholic Democrat told The Epoch Times she has been disappointed “since day one” after voting for current President Joe Biden. She hopes Kennedy will win the Democratic nomination.
“This is about courage, this is about alliance, and this is about leadership,” she said. “Kennedy represents all three of those.”
Brierdy also likes that Kennedy vaccine mandates, saying while she is not opposed to vaccines, she favors informed consent and people’s right to make their own medical decision.
While he wishes Kennedy would run as an independent, Rhode Islander Elliot Minor, said he already has his vote. Like Brierdy, Minor told The Epoch Times he likes Kennedy’s views on vaccine safety. He also feels like Kennedy would be the first president “to actually drain the swamp.”Like Brierdy, he voted for Biden, but has no plans to do so again.
Charles Small, who flew in from Richmond, Virginia, was already wearing a Kennedy 2024 campaign pin. He is also switching his support from Biden to Kennedy. He said Kennedy had him hooked when he read on his campaign website that he was going after government corruption, especially the abuse of its regulatory powers.
Nina Moliver, a local from nearby Jamaica Plain and two time Biden voter, said Kennedy’s fight for vaccine mandates is the primary reason she is supporting him. “Forced vaccines crosses a boundary for me,” she said.” She also added that “this is about the whole cartel.”
“I’m not interested anymore in the pseudo-left identity politics,” she said. “Robert is a true progressive.”
Bostonians React
Outside of Park Plaza though the reaction to Kennedy’s bid for the Presidency was far more mixed.
“He’d be better than sleepy Joe,” a local Bostonian who asked not to be identified because he is a government employee, told The Epoch Times.
But Washington state resident Brian Walsh who was dining with his family just a few booths away from the fabled “Kennedy booth” at the local Union Oyster House, told The Epoch Times, that Kennedy’s vaccine stance alone, makes him oppose Kennedy and that he would like to see Joe Biden re-elected.
“I can’t vote for someone who promotes all that misinformation about vaccines,” Walsh said.
Nina Moliver, a local from nearby Jamaica Plain and two time Biden voter, said Kennedy’s fight against vaccines is the primary reason she is supporting him. “Forced vaccines crosses a boundary for me,” she said.” She also added that “this is about the whole cartel.”
“I’m not interested anymore in the pseudo-left identity politics,” she said, ” Robert is a true progressive.”
Just a few blocks away a group of Suffolk University students who talked about “my body my choice” when it came to abortion, told The Epoch Times that even though Kennedy was aligned with them on that, they also would not support him because of his position on vaccines.
One of the students, Maxwell Wright, a political science major who is graduating from Suffolk in just a few months, called Kennedy part of a “draconian emblematic dynasty that needs to go.”
Suffolk University professor Donna Giancola, a lifelong Bostonian, who was out with her students and shared their liberal views, said she is “open to voting for Kennedy” and told The Epoch Times she thought it was good “a Kennedy was running.
From The Epoch Times
