The legendary Kennedy clan supported US President Joe Biden on a campaign trip to Philadelphia on Thursday – highlighting the electoral threat posed by the family’s black sheep and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“I don’t want to get emotional, but what an incredible honor to have the support of the Kennedy family,” Biden, 81, said after 15 members of his politically known family backed the Democrat against Donald Trump.
Kennedy’s endorsement is also crucial amid fears that a strong showing by conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic “RFK Jr” could tilt the election in Trump’s favor in the presidential vote November American.
The environmental lawyer is the son of Robert F. Kennedy Sr., or Bobby, who served as attorney general under assassinated President John F. Kennedy and was himself shot to death in 1968 during his own presidential bid.
The candidate’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, introduced Biden at the event, the culmination of a three-day stay in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania.
“Almost all of Rose and Joe Kennedy’s grandchildren support Joe Biden. That’s right, the Kennedy family supports Joe Biden for president,” Kerry Kennedy said, referring to the family patriarchs.
She did not mention RFK Jr by name, but repeatedly alluded to the risk Biden faced if people voted for his brother, saying there were “only two candidates with a chance of winning.” : Biden and Trump.
“We must all come together in a campaign that should unite not only Democrats but all Americans, including Republicans and independents,” she said.
Biden responded by describing himself, not RFK Jr., as the political heir of his father Bobby Kennedy.
He has a bronze bust of Bobby Kennedy in the Oval Office, which can be seen behind him in photos whenever he meets with foreign dignitaries at the White House.
“Today I’m sitting behind the Resolute desk where President John F. Kennedy once sat, and as I look out from the desk…to the left is a bust of Martin Luther King Jr, and to the right is a bust of your father,” he said.
– ‘Family tradition’ –
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he respected the family’s decision to support his electoral rival.
“I heard some of my family members will be supporting President Biden today. I’m glad they’re politically active — it’s a family tradition,” he said on X.
“We are divided in our opinions but united in our love for one another.”
He also said he was named to the ballot in the crucial battleground state of Michigan.
Biden will also speak at a popular event, introduced by RFK Jr’s nephew Joe Kennedy III, who is Biden’s special envoy to Northern Ireland for economic affairs, before members of his family strike at the door.
The endorsement is not the first show of force in favor of Biden by America’s most mythologized political family.
Dozens of Kennedys posed for a photo with Biden in the White House Rose Garden to mark St. Patrick’s Day in March as they celebrated their shared Irish heritage.
Amid growing unease among Democrats, the fact that Robert F. Kennedy’s candidacy for president risks spoiling Biden’s hopes of securing a second term in the White House.
Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic who spread misinformation downplaying the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, is showing double-digit support in polls with less than seven months until the election.
Democrats learned to fear longtime outsiders after George W. Bush and Trump won close elections in 2000 and 2016, buoyed by Green Party candidates who siphoned off votes from Al Gore and Hillary Clinton.
Kennedy, 70, began his White House campaign as a Democrat but left the primary after complaining about intimidation tactics by Biden allies seeking to keep him out of the competition.
nsp/acb
