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WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and scion to a storied political family, is challenging President Joe Biden for the White House, officially kicking off his 2024 presidential bid Wednesday morning in Boston.
Kennedy will be running as a Democrat and campaigning on a platform of fighting for the “liberties guaranteed by the Constitution,” according to his campaign website.
He joins the field with self-help author Marianne Williamson, who previously launched a campaign as a Democrat to face off against Biden. The president is expected to run for reelection but has not yet formally announced his campaign.
The son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, both assassinated in the 1960s, Kennedy has been the subject of recent controversies for criticizing COVID-19 restrictions, making anti-vaccine comments and spreading misinformation about the pandemic and vaccines.
Kennedy campaigns on protecting freedoms
Kennedy touts his efforts to battle corporate greed and government corruption, and emphasizes protecting “our children, our health, our livelihoods, our environment, and above all, our freedom,” according to his campaign website.
According to a new Morning Consult survey from before his official announcement, 10% of Democratic primary voters polled said they would vote for Kennedy. Within the party’s potential primary voters, 46% hold favorable views of the candidate.
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Kennedy’s vaccine views mirror Trump’s
Kennedy’s stance on vaccines resemble those of former President Donald Trump, who is running for the Republican presidential ticket in 2024. Both Kennedy and Trump in the past have questioned whether vaccines cause autism, despite studies that prove the opposite.
In 2017, Trump asked Kennedy to chair a presidential commission on vaccine safety to ensure scientific integrity in the vaccine process.
At the time, Kennedy said Trump is “very pro-vaccine, as am I,” but wants to make sure “they’re as safe as they possibly can be.”
More:Trump asks vaccine skeptic RFK Jr. to lead study on vaccine safety
Kennedy’s controversial comments on COVID
Kennedy received backlash, even being banned on Instagram, for criticizing the government’s COVID-19 restrictions and spreading misinformation about the virus.
The anti-vaccine activist made comments last year suggesting things are worse for Americans today than they were for Anne Frank, the teenager who hid with her family during the Nazi persecution and later died in a concentration camp.
“Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did,” he told a crowd at a rally put on by his anti-vaccine nonprofit group.
Kennedy later apologized for the comments, the second time he apologized for making comparisons between Nazis and the Holocaust and public health measures – previously using the word “holocaust” in 2015 to describe children he believes were hurt by vaccines.
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Who is Robert F. Kennedy?
Kennedy served as an attorney for the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council for over three decades.
The former environmental lawyer founded and served as the president of Waterkeeper Alliance, a network of environmental organizations advocating for clean water. He held the role for more than 20 years.
Kennedy also started an anti-vaccine nonprofit, the Children’s Health Defense, with other vaccine safety advocates.
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