Robert F Kennedy Jr’s siblings condemn his ‘perilous’ presidential campaign

Robert F Kennedy Jr’s run for the White House as an independent candidate is “perilous” for the US, his siblings said in a statement on Monday, immediately following their brother’s campaign launch in Philadelphia.

Related: Robert F Kennedy Jr announces independent run for 2024 US election

“The decision of our brother Bobby to run as a third party candidate against Joe Biden is dangerous to our country,” said sisters Rory Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend; and brother Joseph P Kennedy II in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment. Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.”

All are children of Robert F Kennedy, the Democratic former US attorney general and New York senator who was assassinated in 1968, and his widow Ethel, 95, founder of the Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

It is not the first time Kennedy family members have criticized their relative, a noted conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer. In July, Kerry Kennedy, chair of the Robert F Kennedy human rights center, denounced as “deplorable and untruthful” Robert F Kennedy Jr’s claim that Covid was engineered to target some ethnic groups and spare others.

In an email to the Guardian, Rory Kennedy said: “There is a great deal of hate in the world and remarks like Bobby’s only serve to fuel that hate. Such conspiracy mongering not only creates more divisiveness, it actually puts people’s lives in danger.”

The Democratic former Massachusetts congressman Joe Kennedy III, Robert F Kennedy’s nephew, and US special envoy to Northern Ireland, said in a tweet: “My uncle’s comments were hurtful and wrong. I unequivocally condemn what he said.”