Photo: Hans Pennink/AP Photo
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.is running for president in 2024.
The 69-year-old nephew of late PresidentJohn F. Kennedyand son of late U.S. Attorney GeneralRobert F. Kennedyfiled paperwork with the Federal Election Commissionto run as a Democratic candidatefor president in 2024. His father was assassinated in the same position, seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968.
Kennedy alluded that he would run for the office in a tweet last month asking people to “help me decide whether to run for president.”
“If it looks like I can raise the money and mobilize enough people to win, I’ll jump in the race,” he tweeted. “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.”
Kennedy, who is married toCurb Your EnthusiasmactressCheryl Hines, is known for his work as an environmental lawyer andanti-vaccine conspiracist, having invited criticism for spreading disinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic and founding anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense.
Helobbied to allow parents to opt outof California state requirements for vaccinating their children, and a 2019 study found that Children’s Health Defense had paid for more than half of the ads on Facebook that promoted false claims about vaccines,according toThe New York Times.
Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto via Getty
He was alsobanned from Instagram in 2021for “sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines,” which he called “a formula for catastrophe and a coup d’état against the First Amendment” in a statement to PEOPLE at the time.
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His statements have led multiple family members, including his sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and brother Joseph P. Kennedy II, to denounce his anti-vaccine stance in aPoliticomagazine op-ed, where they wrote that “his and others' work against vaccines is having heartbreaking consequences.”
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He is expected to challenge incumbent PresidentJoe Biden, who has previously voiced his plans to"run for reelection,“and self-help authorMarianne Williamson, who filed to run for president on Saturday, per AP.
source: people.com
