Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched a longshot bid for the US presidency, entering the 2024 race as a Democratic candidate who will challenge his party’s stance on issues ranging from vaccines to foreign policy and censorship.
Kennedy, the son of 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy – both of whom were assassinated – filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. He and self-help author Marianne Williamson have become the first two Democratic candidates to enter the race, presumably taking on 80-year-old Joe Biden, who has indicated that he plans to seek re-election despite already being the country’s oldest ever president.
As a scion of one of America’s most famous political dynasties, Kennedy, 69, will at least have name recognition on his side as he campaigns for the presidential nomination. However, he has been attacked over his opposition to Covid-19 vaccine mandates.
Kennedy had hinted about a White House run in recent weeks, saying in a Twitter post last month that he wanted supporters to help him to decide whether to challenge Biden. “If it looks like I can raise the money and mobilize enough people to win, I’ll jump in the race. If I run, my top priority will be to end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedoms. Together, we can restore America’s democracy.”
A long-time environmental lawyer, author and anti-vaccine activist, Kennedy filed a class-action lawsuit last month against Biden, former Covid-19 czar Dr. Anthony Fauci, and other administration officials for compelling social media platforms to censor jab critics. He has called for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying, “There is no America without a Free Press. There is no Free Press without a free Julian Assange.”
Kennedy has also spoken out against the US Federal Reserve’s planned digital currency, and accused the CIA of suppressing records related to the 1963 assassination of his uncle. Earlier this week, he blamed a policy of using military power to enforce global hegemony for the loss of US influence over Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchy’s new alliances with China and Iran.
“The Ukraine war is the final collapse of the neocon's short-lived ‘American Century,’” Kennedy said. “The neocon projects in Iraq and Ukraine have cost $8.1 trillion, hollowed out our middle class, made a laughingstock of US military power and moral authority, pushed China and Russia into an invincible alliance, destroyed the dollar as the global currency, cost millions of lives and done nothing to advance democracy or win friendships or influence.”
The military industrial complex has “sewed [sic] chaos” globally while obliterating America’s moral authority and impoverishing the middle class, Kennedy said last month. He pledged: “I want to bridge the toxic polarization that divides Republicans and Democrats allowing elites to capture our government.”