Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s Grandson, Slams Cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: ‘An Embarrassment’
“I’ve listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president,” Schlossberg, who voiced support for Biden, said in a passionate Instagram video posted early Friday morning
Just days after presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was slammed for giving a speech full of conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 virus, John F. Kennedy’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, blasted his cousin in a scathing video message.
Early Friday morning, Schlossberg posted a video on Instagram criticizing his cousin’s presidential candidacy — and strongly endorsing incumbent President Joe Biden as the person to carry on his grandfather's legacy. He filmed the selfie video from a car.
“Hi, I’m Jack Schlossberg and I have something to say,” the 30-year-old attorney said, addressing the camera directly. “President John F. Kennedy is my grandfather and his legacy is important. It’s about a lot more than Camelot and conspiracy theories. It’s about public service and courage. It’s about civil rights, the Cuban missile crisis, and landing a man on the moon.”
JFK’s only grandson continued, diving into a full scale endorsement of Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.
“Joe Biden shares my grandfather's vision for America. That we do things not because they are easy but because they are hard," Schlossberg said, "and he’s in the middle of becoming the greatest progressive president we’ve ever had.”
The selfie video continued with Schlossberg listing some of Biden’s successes while in office.
"Under Biden, we’ve added 13 million jobs. Unemployment is at its lowest in 60 years. Biden passed the largest investment in infrastructure since The New Deal. And the largest investment in green energy ever. He’s appointed more federal judges than any president since my grandfather. He ended our longest war. He ended the COVID pandemic. And he ended Donald Trump," Schlossberg said.
“These are the issues that matter," he continued, "and if my cousin, Bobby Kennedy Jr., cared about any of them, he would support Joe Biden, too. Instead, he’s trading in on Camelot, celebrity, conspiracy theories, and conflict for personal gain and fame."
Schlossberg then got more pointed in denouncing his cousin, saying, "I’ve listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president. What I do know is, his candidacy is an embarrassment. Let’s not be distracted, again, by somebody’s vanity project.”
“I’m excited to vote for Joe Biden in my state’s primary and again in the general election — and I hope you will too,” he ended the video.
Schlossberg and Kennedy are cousins, once removed. Schlossberg’s mom, Caroline Kennedy, is RFK Jr.'s first cousin.
Earlier this week, advocacy organizations criticized RFK Jr.'s reckless comments at a private New York City event, which were captured on video by The New York Post.
“COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy, 69, said. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
Known for his track record of spouting debunked misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccinations, Kennedy echoed antisemitic discourse that Jews engineered and spread the COVID-19 virus, according to the 2021 Antisemitism Worldwide Report by Tel Aviv University. Similar conspiracies about Jewish people and disease have been made for centuries.
Ted Deutch, a former congressman and CEO of the American Jewish Committee, tweeted Saturday that Kennedy’s comments are “deeply offensive and incredibly dangerous.”
“Every aspect of his comments reflects some of the most abhorrent antisemitic conspiracy theories throughout history and contributes to today’s dangerous rise of antisemitism,” Deutch continued via Twitter.
RFK Jr.'s younger sister, Kerry Kennedy — who runs a human rights organization named after their father, Robert F. Kennedy — also weighed in on the controversy, tweeting, "I STRONGLY condemn my brother's deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting."
The 2024 presidential hopeful responded to the backlash to his comments via Twitter in a lengthy video of a conversation with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, calling the insinuation that his comments were antisemitic “a disgusting fabrication.”
“I understand the emotional pain that these inaccurate distortions and fabrications have caused to many Jews who recall the blood libels of poison wells and the deliberate spread of disease as the pretext for genocidal programs against their ancestors,” Kennedy wrote in the tweet.
“My father and my uncles, John F. Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy, devoted enormous political energies during their careers to supporting Israel and fighting antisemitism. I intend to spend my political career making those family causes my priority," he continued.
On Thursday, hours before Schlossberg posted his video, House Republicans invited Kennedy to speak at a hearing by the GOP-led House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
During the hearing, Kennedy accused political foes — including the Biden administration — of trying to silence him, and insisted, “In my entire life, and while I’m under oath I have never uttered a phrase that was either racist or antisemitic.”
He also claimed, “I’ve never been anti-vaccine,” despite repeatedly spreading scientifically discredited narratives about vaccines and founding an anti-vaccination advocacy group in 2011.
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