What is Known About Robert Kennedy Jr. Running for US Presidency?

US environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and son of the slain US Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY). He has announced he will challenge current POTUS Joe Biden to become the Democratic nominee for the White House in 2024.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially announced his candidacy for the US presidency before a crowd of several hundred people at the Boston Park Plaza hotel in Massachusetts on April 19.

“My mission over the next 18 months of this campaign and throughout my presidency will be to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening now... to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism in our country; to commoditize our children, our purple mountain’s majesty; to poison our children and our people with chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs; to strip-mine our assets; to hollow out the middle class and keep us in a constant state of war,” he said.

Announcing his 2024 bid, Kennedy vowed to do away with a “polarization in this country today that is so toxic and so dangerous at any time since the Civil War.”

“During this campaign and during my administration my objective will be to make as many Americans as possible forget that they are Republicans or Democrats and remember that they are Americans,” he said at the kick-off event in Boston.

The Democrat lashed out at ex-POTUS Donald Trump for enforcement of COVID-19 lockdowns at the height of the pandemic. RFK Jr. could not but weigh in on the Ukraine conflict, questioning the taxpayer costs of continuously supporting Kiev authorities.

“We have money for wars and we have money to bail [out] bankers. But what happens to American people who hit hard times?” he queried. He also added that it was not in US interest to “push Russia closer to China”, and “involve us in something that could lead to a nuclear exchange.”

In his speech, RFK Jr. also touched upon the environmental issues he has championed, bemoaning loss of “butterflies and songbirds,” and adding: "I think we deserve a president in this country who cares about these things and talks about these things.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will now be joining Marianne Williamson, author and activist, in challenging Democratic Joe Biden in the 2024 race to the Oval Office.

Who is the 69-year-old activist and lawyer who is intent on following in the footsteps of other family members bearing the illustrious Kennedy name? Sputnik explores.

Who is the Kennedy Running for President?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was born on January 17, 1954, at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. His parents were Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy (née Skakel). The future prominent environmental lawyer and activist was the third eldest of 11 children.

RFK Jr. appeared set to emulate that and built up a large family. He walked the aisle three times. On April 3, 1982, he wed Emily Ruth Black, a friend from his days at the University of Virginia School of Law. The couple had two youngsters: a son and a daughter. With wife No 2 - Mary Kathleen Richardson – RFK Jr. had four children. However, tragically, Mary was discovered dead at her home in Mount Kisco, New York, with a medical examiner ruling her death to be a suicide due to asphyxiation from hanging in May 2012.

US attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife actress Cheryl Hines attends the 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights' Ripple Of Hope Awards.

© AFP 2023 / ANGELA WEISS

The newly-announced presidential hopeful's current wife is podcast host, director, actress, and producer Cheryl Hines. She was nominated for two Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Larry David's wife, Cheryl, on Curb Your Enthusiasm, an HBO sitcom. The two tied the knot on August 2, 2014. The couple now alternate between living in Los Angeles, California, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The Kennedy brothers: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Senator Ted Kennedy, and President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

© Photo : Public Domain

How Many Kennedy's Were Assassinated?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is known for having had two of his relatives assassinated when in political office in the United States.

The first assassinated Kennedy in Robert F. Kennedy Jr's life was, of course, his uncle, the 35th US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, similarly often referred to by his JFK initials. JFK was shot twice as his motorcade drove through Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963.

President Kennedy in the limousine in Dallas, Texas, on Main Street, minutes before the assassination. Also in the presidential limousine are Jackie Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally, and his wife, Nellie

© Photo : Walt Cisco, Dallas Morning News

Several investigations arrived at the conclusion that the shots were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was arrested shortly after the murder. Two days later, Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby, an owner of a club in Dallas, while being escorted to a car that was supposed to deliver him to the county jail. There has been an abundance of conspiracy theories striving to explain the assassination of Kennedy and the murder of Oswald circulating in the decades since the events took place. If he had lived, JFK would be 106 on May 29 this year.

At the time of the assassination, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was nine years old.

Five years after the death of JFK, his younger brother - Senator Robert Francis Kennedy and RFK Jr's father - was assassinated. He was slain while running for the US presidency in the 1968 Democratic presidential primaries.

RFK Jr. was 14 years old when US Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) was shot by 24-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The attack happened right after "Bobby" Kennedy, as his nickname went, secured the California presidential primary. Robert F. Kennedy did not die on the spot, and was pronounced dead the following day, on June 6, 1968. The perpetrator was ostensibly irate over Kennedy’s support for Israel during the Six Day War.

Robert Francis Kennedy had served as the 64th US Attorney General from January 1961 until September 1964.

How Many Times Did RFK Jr Take the Bar Exam?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr's legal career started in 1983, with the position of assistant district attorney in Manhattan. Subsequently, in 1984, RFK Jr. became an investigator for Hudson Riverkeeper. On June 3, 1985, the 31-year-old passed the final portion of the state bar exam - character and fitness part. He had passed the written portion of the exam after two tries in 1983.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got a J.D. degree at the New York University School of Law in 1989. RFK Jr. formed the environmental law firm of Kennedy & Madonna, LLP together with attorney Kevin Madonna in 2000. The two worked on some headline-making cases, such as representing the Ramapough Mountain Indian Tribe against Ford Motor Company. The case involved dumping of toxic waste on tribal lands. Kennedy and his trial team were presented with the National Trial Lawyers Association award in 2018 for triumphing in the Dewayne "Lee" Johnson v Monsanto case.

Kennedy's career in law has predominantly focused on indigenous rights cases and environmental pollution.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is, US environmental lawyer and activist and nephew of former president John F. Kennedy, is seen on a screen on August 29, 2020.

© AFP 2023 / JOHN MACDOUGALL

What is he Noted For?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made headlines due to his strident opposition to vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic. RFK Jr. became an especially outspoken critic of the coronavirus jab program instituted by Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump. But his anti-vaccine crusade dates back at least 15 years. In his 2021 book "The Real Anthony Fauci," Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of assisting in "a historic coup d'etat against Western Democracy."

Kennedy Jr. doubled down on his anti-vaccine stance In a March television interview this year. Asked for his hypothetical response to Democratic voters who disagree with him on the vaccine issue, Kennedy Jr. replied "show me where I got it wrong, let's talk about it."

What Are His Interests?

When it comes to hobbies and personal interests, RFK Jr. is a licensed falconer who has been training hawks since the age of 11.

Bobby Kennedy Jr., son of Robert F. Kennedy Sr., prepares to release a Red-tailed Hawk into the wild May 31, 2003 in Brewster, NY.

© AFP 2023 / DON EMMERT

He is also an avid whitewater kayaker. His father, the late senator, had gotten him interested in kayaking.

Robert Kennedy Jr. navigates a canoe on February 20, 2000.

© AFP 2023 / TERESITA CHAVARRIA

How Wealthy is the Kennedy Family?

As of 2015, an estimated 30 Kennedy family individuals were belived to be worth $1.2 billion, according to Forbes. Currently, the Kennedy family member still alive and estimated to possess the highest net worth is considered to be Caroline Kennedy, the sole surviving child of John F. Kennedy, the 35th POTUS, and then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Her fortune is deemed to be at around $250 million.

Jacqueline Kennedy stands with her two children Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr and brothers-in law Ted Kennedy (L, back) and Robert Kennedy (R) at the funeral of her husband US President John F. Kennedy 26 November 1963 in Washington, DC.

© AFP 2023 / PIGISTE

As Robert Kennedy, Jr. wades into the 2024 presidential election fray, 14% of voters who supported President Joe Biden in 2020 are now behind his Democratic presidential nomination bid, a US media outlet in conjunction with Suffolk University poll recently discovered. Just 67% of Biden's supporters are now prepared to stand by his candidacy over his challengers, Kennedy and Williamson. 13% revealed they are as yet undecided.