Yahoo News Kennedy clan round on sibling to endorse Joe Biden
Members of the Kennedy family are set to endorse Joe Biden on Thursday, despite a member of the family running as a rival presidential candidate for the White House.
The show of support from the offspring of the late US attorney general Robert F Kennedy – brother to assassinated president John F Kennedy – is a sharp rebuke to their sibling and the eldest son of the famous Democrat as he wages his own presidential bid.
“Daddy stood for equal justice, human rights, and freedom from want and fear. Just as president Biden does today,” Kerry Kennedy is expected to say at a campaign event for Mr Biden in Philadelphia.
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She will be joined at the event by her sister Kathleen and brothers Rory, Joseph, Maxwell and Christopher.
Joe Kennedy III, who serves as Mr Biden’s special envoy to Northern Ireland, will also campaign for the president in the state on Thursday.
In all, more than a dozen members of America’s most famous political dynasty are planning to campaign and formally endorse Mr Biden at the event in Philadelphia.
The Kennedy clan are said to have approached the Biden campaign and proposed the co-ordinated endorsement, rather than the other way around.
The appearance has been designed as a show of force against Robert F Kennedy Jnr, who initially challenged Mr Biden for the Democratic nomination before launching an independent bid in November’s White House race.
“I hear some of my family will be endorsing President Biden today,” Mr Kennedy said in response.
“I am pleased they are politically active — it’s a family tradition. We are divided in our opinions but united in our love for each other.”
Mr Kennedy’s strong polling performance, which has hit double-digits in some surveys, has rattled Democrats who fear his third-party bid may cost Mr Biden a second term.
The 70 year-old’s views – such as his belief that the CIA may have been involved with his uncle president John F Kennedy’s assassination – are at odds with many of his relatives.
Many of the political clan’s most prominent members have previously denounced some of Mr Kennedy’s comments, including his promotion of conspiracy theories around vaccines.
Some of his siblings previously penned an op-ed stating: “We love Robert F Kennedy Jr, but he is part of a misinformation campaign that’s having heartbreaking – and deadly – consequences.”
They have also criticised his insurgent challenge to Mr Biden’s re-election bid, and denounced a promotional advert that closely resembled one supporting president Kennedy during his 1960 White House bid.
“Nobody competes with president Biden when it comes to carrying on the legacies of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Ted Kennedy,” Kerry Kennedy told ABC’s Good Morning America on Thursday.
