Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. (born January 17, 1954) is an American environmental lawyer and author known for promoting
anti-vaccine
Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain abou ...
propaganda and
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
. Kennedy is a son of U.S. senator
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
and a nephew of President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
. He helped found the non-profit environmental group
Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance is a worldwide network of environmental organizations founded in 1999 in response to a growing movement of organizations with such names as Riverkeeper, Baykeeper and Soundkeeper. By December 2019, the group said it had gro ...
in 1999 and has served as the president of its board. Kennedy has co-hosted ''
Ring of Fire
The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. The Ring o ...
'', a nationally syndicated radio program, and written or edited ten books, including two
''New York Times'' bestsellers.
From 1986 until 2017, Kennedy was a senior attorney for the
Natural Resources Defense Council
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...
(NRDC), a non-profit environmental organization. From 1984 until 2017, he was a board member and attorney for
Hudson Riverkeeper
Riverkeeper is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as the watersheds that provide New York City with its drinking water. It started out as the Hudson River Fisherman' ...
. Earlier in his legal career, he served as assistant district attorney in New York City. For over thirty years, Kennedy was an adjunct professor of
Environmental law at
Pace University School of Law
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is the law school of Pace University located in White Plains, New York. Founded in 1976 as Pace Law School, the American Bar Association (ABA) accredited it in 1978. Pace has a top-ranked Envir ...
. Until August 2017, he held the post as supervising attorney and co-director of Pace Law School's Environmental Litigation Clinic, which he founded in 1987.
Since 2005, he has promoted the scientifically discredited idea that
vaccines cause autism, and is founder and chairman of
Children's Health Defense
Children's Health Defense is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit activist group mainly known for anti-vaccine propaganda and has been identified as one of the main sources of misinformation on vaccines. Founded under the name World Mercury Project ...
, an anti-vaccine propaganda group.
Early life and education
![President John F](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/President_John_F._Kennedy_with_Robert_F._Kennedy%2C_Jr._%2803%29.jpg)
Kennedy was born at
Georgetown University Hospital
MedStar Georgetown University Hospital is one of the Washington, D.C. area's oldest academic teaching hospitals. It is a not-for-profit, acute care teaching and research facility located in the Georgetown neighborhood of the Northwest Quadrant ...
in Washington, D.C., on January 17, 1954. He is the third of eleven children of senator and attorney general
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
and
Ethel Kennedy
Ethel Kennedy (' Skakel; born April 11, 1928) is an American human rights advocate. She is the widow of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy, and the sixth child of George Skakel and Ann Brannack. Shortly ...
, Skakel. He is a nephew of president and senator
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
, and senator
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
.
Kennedy grew up at his family's homes in
McLean, Virginia
McLean ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its proxi ...
, and
Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
. He was 9 years old in 1963 when his uncle, President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
,
was assassinated, and 14 years old in 1968 when his
father was assassinated while running for president in the
1968 Democratic presidential primaries.
Kennedy learned of his father's shooting when he was at
Georgetown Preparatory School
Georgetown Preparatory School (also known as Georgetown Prep) is a Jesuit college-preparatory school in North Bethesda, Maryland for boys in ninth through twelfth grade. It has a 93-acre (380,000 square meters) campus. It is the only Jesuit boar ...
, a
Jesuit boarding school in North Bethesda, Maryland. A few hours later, he flew to Los Angeles on vice-president
Hubert Humphrey's plane, along with his elder sister
Kathleen and elder brother
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
, and was with his father when he died. Kennedy was a pallbearer in his father's funeral, where he spoke and read excerpts from his father's speeches at the Mass commemorating his death at
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
.
After obtaining his high school diploma from the Palfrey Street School in
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, Kennedy continued his education at
Harvard and the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
, graduating from
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts in American History and Literature. He went on to earn a
Juris Doctor from the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
and a
Master of Laws
A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...
from
Pace University
Pace University is a private university with its main campus in New York City and secondary campuses in Westchester County, New York. It was established in 1906 by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace as a business school. Pace ...
.
Career
In 1983, when Kennedy was an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, he was arrested and pled guilty to heroin possession and was sentenced to two years' probation and community service.
Following his arrest he entered a drug treatment center and during his probation volunteered for the
Natural Resources Defense Council
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...
. His probation ended a year early.
In 1984, Kennedy joined Riverkeeper as an investigator, and was promoted to senior attorney
[Cronin, John; Kennedy, Robert F. Jr. (1997). ''The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right''. New York: Scribner. p. 304. .] when he was admitted to the New York bar in 1985.
[Dunlap, David W. and Perlez, Jane (June 4, 1985).]
A Quiet Victory For Robert F. Kennedy Jr
. ''The New York Times''.
Kennedy is an environmental law specialist and partner in the law firms of
Morgan & Morgan
Morgan & Morgan is an American law firm. Founded in 1988 by John Morgan, it is headquartered in Orlando, Florida. While Morgan & Morgan was historically considered a firm focused on personal injury, medical malpractice and class action law ...
and of Kennedy & Madonna, LLP, and is an advocate for
environmental justice
Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justic ...
.
Through litigation, lobbying, teaching, and public campaigns and activism, Kennedy has advocated for the protection of waterways,
indigenous rights
Indigenous rights are those rights that exist in recognition of the specific condition of the Indigenous peoples. This includes not only the most basic human rights of physical survival and integrity, but also the rights over their land (includ ...
, and
renewable energy.
In 2018, the National Trial Lawyers Association awarded Kennedy and his trial team Trial Team of the Year for their work winning a $289 million jury verdict in Dewayne "Lee" Johnson v Monsanto.
Riverkeeper
Kennedy litigated and supervised environmental enforcement lawsuits on the east coast estuaries on behalf of Hudson Riverkeeper and the
Long Island Soundkeeper, where he was also a board member. Long Island Soundkeeper brought numerous lawsuits against cities and industries along the Connecticut and New York coastlines. In 1986, Kennedy won a landmark case against Remington Arms Trap and Skeet Gun Club in
Stratford, Connecticut, that ended the practice of shooting lead shot into
Long Island Sound. Kennedy also filed federal lawsuits to close the
Pelham Bay landfill and the New York Athletic clubs, arguing that those facilities were interfering with public use of Long Island Sound. On the Hudson, Kennedy brought a series of lawsuits against municipalities, including New York City, to properly treat sewage, and against industries, including
Consolidated Edison,
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...
and
Exxon, to stop discharging pollution and to clean up legacy contamination.
In 1995, Kennedy advocated for repeal of the anti-environmental legislation during the 104th Congress.
[Werth, Barry (May 2, 2004).]
Somewhere Down the Crazy River
". ''Outside''. In 1997, Kennedy worked with John Cronin to write ''The Riverkeepers'', a history of the early Riverkeepers and a primer for the Waterkeeper movement.
Drawing on his experience investigating and suing polluters on behalf of the Waterkeepers, Kennedy has written extensively about environmental law enforcement.
Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic
In 1987, Kennedy founded the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law, where for three decades he was the clinic's supervising attorney and co-director, and as Clinical Professor of Law. Kennedy obtained a special order from the New York State Court of Appeals that permitted his 10 clinic students–second- and third-year law students–to practice law and to try cases against Hudson River polluters in state and federal court, under the supervision of Kennedy and his co-director, Professor Karl Coplan. The clinic's full-time clients are Riverkeeper and Long Island Soundkeeper.
[Kennedy, Robert F. Jr., Solow, Steven P. (1993). "Environmental Litigation as Clinical Education: A Case Study". ''University of Oregon Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation'' Volume 8]
The clinic has sued numerous governments and companies for polluting Long Island Sound and the Hudson River and its tributaries. The clinic argued cases to expand citizen access to the shoreline and won hundreds of settlements for the Hudson Riverkeeper. Kennedy and his students also sued dozens of municipal waste-water treatment plants to force compliance with the
Clean Water Act.
In 2010, a Pace lawsuit forced
ExxonMobil to clean up tens of millions of gallons of oil from legacy refinery spills in Newtown Creek in Brooklyn, New York.
On April 11, 2001, ''
Men's Journal'' recognized Kennedy with its "Heroes" Award for his creation of the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic. Kennedy and his Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic received other awards for successful legal work cleaning up the environment. The Pace Clinic became a model for similar environmental law clinics throughout the country including Rutgers, Golden Gate, UCLA, Widener, and Boalt Hall at Berkeley.
Waterkeepers Alliance
In June 1999, as Riverkeeper's success on the Hudson began inspiring the creation of Waterkeepers across North America, Kennedy and a few dozen Riverkeepers gathered in Southampton, Long Island, to found the Waterkeeper Alliance, which is now the umbrella group for the 344 licensed Waterkeeper programs located in 44 countries. As President of the Alliance, Kennedy oversees its legal, membership, policy and fundraising programs. The Alliance states that it is dedicated to promoting "swimmable, fishable, drinkable waterways, worldwide," and is also a clearinghouse, approving new Keeper programs and licensing use of the trademarked "Waterkeeper," "Riverkeeper," "Soundkeeper," "Lakekeeper," "Baykeeper," "Bayoukeeper," "Canalkeeper," "Coastkeeper," etc. names.
Kennedy and his environmental work have been the focus of several films including ''The Hudson Riverkeepers'' (1998) and ''The Waterkeepers'' (2000), both directed by Les Guthman. In 2008, he appeared in the
IMAX documentary film ''
Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk'', riding the length of the
Grand Canyon in a wooden dory with his daughter 'Kick' and with anthropologist
Wade Davis.
New York City Watershed Agreement
Beginning in 1991, Kennedy represented environmentalists and New York City watershed consumers in a series of lawsuits against New York City and upstate watershed polluters. Kennedy authored a series of articles and reports alleging that New York State was abdicating its responsibility to protect the water repository and supply. In 1996, he helped orchestrate the $1.2 billion New York City Watershed Agreement, which ''
New York'' magazine recognized in its cover story, "The Kennedy Who Matters". This agreement, which Kennedy negotiated on behalf of environmentalists and New York City watershed consumers, is regarded as an international model in stakeholder consensus negotiations and sustainable development.
Kennedy & Madonna LLP
![R](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/R.F.K._jr_2000.jpg)
In 2000, Kennedy and environmental lawyer Kevin Madonna founded the
environmental law firm Kennedy & Madonna, LLP, to represent private
plaintiffs
A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...
against polluters. The firm litigates environmental contamination cases on behalf of individuals, non-profit organizations, school districts, public water suppliers, Indian tribes, municipalities and states. In 2001, Kennedy & Madonna organized a team of prestigious plaintiff law firms to challenge pollution from industrial pork and poultry production. In 2004, the firm was part of a legal team that secured a $70 million settlement for property owners in Pensacola, Florida whose properties were contaminated by chemicals from an adjacent
Superfund site.
Kennedy & Madonna is profiled in the 2010 HBO documentary ''Mann v. Ford'' that chronicles four years of litigation brought by the firm on behalf of the
Ramapough Mountain Indian Tribe against the
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
over the dumping of toxic waste on tribal lands in northern New Jersey. In addition to a monetary settlement for the tribe, the lawsuit contributed to the community's land being re-listed on the federal Superfund list, the first time in the nation's history that a de-listed site was re-listed. In 2007 Kennedy was one of three finalists nominated as "Trial Lawyer of the Year" by Public Justice for his role in the $396 million jury verdict against
DuPont for contamination from its
Spelter, West Virginia zinc plant. In 2017, the firm was part of the trial team that secured a $670 million settlement on behalf of over 3,000 residents from Ohio and West Virginia whose drinking water was contaminated with the toxic chemical, C8, which was released into the environment by
DuPont in
Parkersburg
Parkersburg is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha rivers, it is the state's fourth-largest city and the largest city in the Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna metro ...
, West Virginia.
Morgan & Morgan
In 2016, Kennedy became counsel to the
Morgan & Morgan
Morgan & Morgan is an American law firm. Founded in 1988 by John Morgan, it is headquartered in Orlando, Florida. While Morgan & Morgan was historically considered a firm focused on personal injury, medical malpractice and class action law ...
law firm. The partnership arose from the two firms' successful collaboration on the case against SoCalGas Company following the
Aliso Canyon gas leak
The Aliso Canyon gas leak (also called Porter Ranch gas leak and Porter Ranch gas blowout) was a massive natural gas leak in the Santa Susana Mountains near Porter Ranch, Los Angeles, California. Discovered on October 23, 2015,Sharon McNary ( ...
in California. In 2017, Kennedy and his partners sued Monsanto in federal court in San Francisco, on behalf of plaintiffs seeking to recover damages for
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), also known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is a group of hematological malignancy, blood cancers that includes all types of lymphomas except Hodgkin lymphomas. Symptoms include lymphadenopathy, enlarged lymph nodes, fever ...
, that, the plaintiffs allege, were a result of exposure to Monsanto's
glyphosate
Glyphosate (IUPAC name: ''N''-(phosphonomethyl)glycine) is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant. It is an organophosphorus compound, specifically a phosphonate, which acts by inhibiting the plant enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshik ...
-based herbicide,
Roundup. Kennedy and his team also filed a class action lawsuit against
Monsanto
The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in ...
for failing to warn consumers about the dangers allegedly posed by exposure to Roundup. In September 2018, Kennedy and his partners filed a class-action lawsuit against
Columbia Gas of Massachusetts alleging negligence following
gas explosions
A gas explosion is an explosion resulting from mixing a gas, typically from a gas leak, with air in the presence of an ignition source. In household accidents, the principal explosive gases are those used for heating or cooking purposes such as na ...
in three towns north of Boston. Of Columbia Gas, Kennedy said "as they build new miles of pipe, the same company is ignoring its existing infrastructure, which we now know is eroding and is dilapidated."
Cleantech and renewable energy infrastructure entrepreneurship
In 1998, Kennedy, Chris Bartle and John Hoving created a
bottled-water company, Keeper Springs, which donated all of its profits to Waterkeeper Alliance. In 2013, Kennedy and his partner sold the brand to
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since ...
in exchange for a donation to local Waterkeepers.
Kennedy was a venture partner and senior advisor at
VantagePoint Capital Partners, one of the world's largest
cleantech
Clean technology, in short cleantech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities. Cle ...
venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...
firms. Among other activities, VantagePoint was the original and largest pre-
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
institutional investor in
Tesla. VantagePoint also backed BrightSource Energy and Solazyme, amongst others. Kennedy is a board member and counselor to several of Vantage Point's portfolio companies in the water and energy space, including Ostara, a Vancouver-based company that markets the technology to remove
phosphorus
Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...
and other excessive nutrients from
wastewater
Wastewater is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of domestic, industrial ...
, transforming otherwise pollution directly into high-grade fertilizer. He is also a senior advisor to Starwood Energy Group and has played a key role in a number of the firm's investments.
He is on the board of Vionx, a
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
-based utility scale
vanadium flow battery systems manufacturer. On October 5, 2017, Vionx,
National Grid and the
US Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...
completed the installation of advanced flow batteries at
Holy Name High School in the city of
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...
. The collaboration also includes
Siemens and the
United Technologies
United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, aerospace systems, ...
Research Center and constitutes one of the largest energy storage facilities in Massachusetts.
Kennedy is a Partner in ColorZen, which offers a turnkey cotton fiber pre-treatment solution that reduces water usage and toxic discharges in the cotton dyeing process.
Kennedy was a co-owner and Director of the
smart grid company Utility Integration Solutions (UISol), which was acquired by
Alstom. He is presently a co-owner and Director of GridBright, the market-leading grid management specialist.
In October 2011, Kennedy co-founded ''EcoWatch'', an environmental news site. He resigned from the board of directors in January 2018.
Minority and poor communities
In his first case as an environmental attorney, Kennedy represented the
NAACP in a lawsuit against a proposal to build a garbage transfer station in a minority neighborhood in
Ossining, New York.
In 1987, he successfully sued
Westchester County
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...
, New York, to reopen the
Croton Point Park
Croton Point Park is a Westchester County park in the village of Croton-on-Hudson.
The park has several public attractions including a miniature aircraft airport, boat launch, tent and RV camping, cabin rental,
cross-country skiing, fishing, gro ...
, which was heavily used primarily by poor and minority communities from
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
. He then forced the reopening of the
Pelham Bay Park
Pelham Bay Park is a municipal park located in the northeast corner of the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is, at , the largest public park in New York City. The park is more than three times the size of Manhattan's Central Park. The pa ...
in the
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, which New York City had closed to the public and converted to a police firing range.
Kennedy has argued that poor communities shoulder the disproportionate burden of environmental pollution. Speaking at the 2016
SXSW Eco environment conference in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, he said, "Polluters always choose the soft target of poverty", noting that Chicago's
south side has the highest concentration of toxic waste dumps in America. Furthermore, he added that 80 percent of "uncontrolled toxic waste dumps" can be found in black neighborhoods, with the largest site in the United States being in
Emelle, Alabama
Emelle is a town in Sumter County, Alabama, Sumter County, Alabama, United States. It was named after the daughters of the man who donated the land for the town. The town was started in the 19th century but not incorporated until 1981. The daught ...
, which is 90 percent black.
International and indigenous rights
Starting in 1985, Kennedy helped develop the
Natural Resources Defense Council
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...
(NRDC)'s international program for environmental, energy, and human rights, traveling to Canada and Latin America to assist indigenous tribes in protecting their homelands and opposing large-scale energy and extractive projects in remote wilderness areas.
In 1990, Kennedy assisted indigenous
Pehuenche
Pehuenche (or ''Pewenche'', people of the "pehuen" or "pewen" in Mapudungun) are an indigenous people of South America. They live in the Andes, primarily in present-day south central Chile and adjacent Argentina. Their name derives from their de ...
s in Chile in a partially successful campaign to stop the construction of a series of dams on Chile's iconic
Biobío River. That campaign derailed all but one of the proposed dams. Beginning in 1992, he assisted the
Cree Indians of northern Quebec in their campaign against
Hydro-Québec to halt construction of some 600 proposed dams on eleven rivers in
James Bay
James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost pa ...
.
In 1993, Kennedy and NRDC, working with the indigenous rights organization
Cultural Survival
Cultural Survival (founded 1972) is a nonprofit group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, which is dedicated to defending the human rights of indigenous peoples.
History
Cultural Survival was founded by anthropologist David Maybur ...
, clashed with other American environmental groups in a dispute about the rights of Indians to govern their own lands in the
Oriente region of Ecuador.
[Kane, Joe (September 27, 1993).]
With Spears from All Sides
. ''The New Yorker''. Kennedy represented the
CONFENIAE The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon ( es, La Confederación de las Nacionalidades Indígenas de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana) or CONFENIAE is the regional organization of indigenous peoples in the Ecuadorian Amazon or O ...
, a confederation of Indian peoples, in negotiation with the American oil company
Conoco to limit oil development in Ecuadorian Amazon and, at the same time, obtain benefits from resource extraction for Amazonian tribes.
Kennedy was a vocal critic of
Texaco
Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an independent company unt ...
for its previous record for polluting the Ecuadoran Amazon.
From 1993 to 1999, Kennedy worked with five
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...
Indian tribes in their campaign to end industrial logging by
MacMillan Bloedel
MacMillan Bloedel Limited, sometimes referred to as "MacBlo", was a Canadian forestry company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was formed through the merger of three smaller forestry companies in 1951 and 1959. Those were the Po ...
in
Clayoquot Sound
, image = Clayoquot Sound - Near Tofino - Vancouver Island BC - Canada - 08.jpg
, image_size = 260px
, alt =
, caption =
, image_bathymetry = Vancouver clayoquot sound de.png
, alt_bathyme ...
, British Columbia.
In 1996, Kennedy met with Cuban President
Fidel Castro to persuade the leader to halt his plans to construct a nuclear power plant at
Juraguá
Juraguá is a Cuban village and ''consejo popular'' ("people's council", i.e. hamlet) of the municipality of Abreus, in Cienfuegos Province. With a population of ca. 7,000 it is the most populated village in the municipality after Abreus.
Histor ...
. During a lengthy latenight encounter, Castro reminisced about Kennedy's father and uncle, speculating that U.S. relations with Cuba would have been far better had President Kennedy not been assassinated.
Between 1996 and 2000, Kennedy and NRDC helped Mexican commercial fishermen to halt
Mitsubishi's proposal to build a salt facility in the
Laguna San Ignacio, a known area in Baja where
gray whales bred, and nursed their calves. Kennedy wrote extensively against the project, and took the campaign to Japan, meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister
Keizo Obuchi.
In 2000, he assisted local environmental activists to stop proposals by Chaffin Light, a real estate developer, and U.S. engineering giant
Bechtel from building a large hotel and resort development that, Kennedy argued, threatened
coral reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.
C ...
s and public beaches used extensively by local Bahamians, at Clifton Bay,
New Providence Island. Following this, the new Bahamian government designated the area a Heritage Park.
Kennedy was one of the early editors of ''
Indian Country Today
''ICT News'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nations.
It was founded in 1981 as a weekly print newspaper, ''The ...
'', North America's largest
Native American newspaper. He helped lead the opposition to the damming of the
Futaleufú River
The Futaleufú River, located in northern Patagonia, is one of the premier whitewater rivers in the world. One of only two rivers to cross the 5,308 kilometer Chile-Argentina border, the Futaleufú headwaters can be found in the glacial snow mel ...
in the
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...
region of Chile. In 2016, citing the pressure precipitated by the Futaleufú Riverkeeper's campaign against the dams, the Spanish power company,
Endesa
Endesa, S.A. (, originally an initialism for ''Empresa Nacional de Electricidad, S.A''.) is a Spanish multinational electric utility company, the largest in the country. The firm, a majority-owned subsidiary of the Italian utility company Enel, ...
, which owned the right to dam the river, reversed its decision and relinquished all claims to the Futaleufú.
Military and Vieques
Kennedy has been a critic of environmental damage by the U.S. military. In 1993, he successfully represented the
Suquamish
The Suquamish () are a Lushootseed language, Lushootseed-speaking Native Americans in the United States, Native American people, located in present-day Washington (state), Washington in the United States. They are a southern Coast Salish peopl ...
and
Duwamish Duwamish may refer to:
* Duwamish tribe, a Native American tribe in Washington state
* Duwamish River, in Washington state
* ''Duwamish'' (fireboat)
See also
* Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is ...
Indian tribes in a lawsuit against the U.S.
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, officially Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF), is a United States Navy shipyard covering 179 acres (0.7 km2) on Puget Sound at Bremerton, Washington in uninterrupted ...
in
Bremerton
Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington. The population was 37,729 at the 2010 census and an estimated 41,405 in 2019, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremer ...
, Washington, to stop polluting
Puget Sound
Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...
.
In a 2001 article, Kennedy described how he sued the
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
on behalf of fishermen and residents of
Vieques
Vieques (; ), officially Isla de Vieques, is an island and municipality of Puerto Rico, in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques is part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, ...
, an island off
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
, to stop weapons testing, bombing, and other military exercises. Kennedy argued that the activities were unnecessary, and that the Navy had illegally destroyed several endangered species, polluted the island's waters, harmed the residents' health, and damaged its economy.
He was arrested for trespassing at
Camp Garcia Vieques
MCAS Vieques Airport was a Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) at MCB Camp Garcia on the island-municipality of Vieques in Puerto Rico. It was built in 1960 by USMC engineers and consisted of a single 5,000 ft east–west runway. It was used to ...
, the
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
training facility, where he and others were protesting the use of a section of the island for training. Kennedy served 30 days in a maximum security prison in Puerto Rico. The trespassing incident forced the suspension of
live-fire exercise
A live-fire exercise (LFX) is a military exercise in which live ammunition and ordnance (as opposed to blanks or dummies) is expended. The term can also be found in non-military usage.
Armed services
Armed services usually use live-fire exerci ...
s for almost three hours. The lawsuits and protests by Kennedy, and hundreds of Puerto Ricans who were also imprisoned, eventually forced the termination of naval bombing in Vieques by president George Bush.
In a 2003 article for the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'', Kennedy accused the U.S. federal government of being "America's biggest polluter" and the
U.S. Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...
as the worst offender. Citing the
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
, he said that "unexploded ordnance waste can be found on 16,000 military ranges...and more than half may contain biological or chemical weapons".
Factory farms
For almost twenty years, Kennedy and his Waterkeepers waged a legal and public relations battle against pollution by factory farms. In the 1990s, he rallied opposition to factory farms among small independent farmers, convened a series of "National Summits" on factory meat products, and conducted press conference whistle stop tours across North Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio and in Washington DC. Beginning in 2000, Kennedy sued factory farms in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Maryland, and Iowa.
[Hahn Niman, Nicolette (February 17, 2009). ''Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food beyond Factory Farms''. Published by William Morrow. p.336 .] He wrote numerous articles on the subject, arguing that factory farms produce lower-quality, less healthy food, and are harmful to independent family farmers by poisoning their air and water, reducing their property values, and using extensive state and federal subsidies to impose unfair competition against smaller farmers.
In 1995, Premier
Ralph Klein
Ralph Philip Klein (November 1, 1942 – March 29, 2013) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 12th premier of Alberta and leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta from 1992 until his retirement in 20 ...
of Alberta declared Kennedy persona non grata in the province due to Kennedy's activism against Alberta's large-scale hog production facilities. In 2002,
Smithfield Foods
Smithfield Foods, Inc., is an American pork producer and food-processing company based in Smithfield, Virginia, in the United States, and an independent subsidiary of WH Group. Founded in 1936 as the Smithfield Packing Company by Joseph W. Luter ...
filed a lawsuit against Kennedy in Poland, under a Polish law that makes criticizing a corporation illegal, after Kennedy denounced the company in a debate with Smithfield's Polish director before the Polish parliament.
Oil, gas, and pipelines
Kennedy has been an advocate for a global transition away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy. He has been particularly critical of the oil industry. He began his career at Riverkeeper during the time that the organization discovered that Exxon was using its oil tankers in order to steal fresh water from the Hudson River for use in its Aruba refinery and to sell to Caribbean Islands. Riverkeeper won a $2 million settlement against Exxon and lobbied successfully for a state law outlawing the practice. In one of his first environmental cases, Kennedy filed a lawsuit against
Mobil Oil
Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999.
...
for polluting the Hudson.
Kennedy helped lead the battle against fracking in New York State. He had been an early supporter of natural gas as viable bridge fuel to renewables, and a cleaner alternative to coal. However, he said he turned against this controversial extraction method after investigating its cost to public health; climate and road infrastructure. As a member of Governor
Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cu ...
's fracking commission, Kennedy helped engineer the Governor's 2013 ban on fracking in New York State.
Kennedy mounted a national effort against the construction of liquefied natural gas facilities. Waterkeepers maintains a national watch that documents numerous crude oil spills annually. In Alaska, Kennedy was active in the fight to save the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR or Arctic Refuge) is a national wildlife refuge in northeastern Alaska, United States on traditional Gwich'in lands. It consists of in the Alaska North Slope region. It is the largest national wildli ...
(ANWR), the largest undisturbed ecosystem in North America, from drilling.
In 2013, Kennedy assisted the
Chipewyan
The Chipewyan ( , also called ''Denésoliné'' or ''Dënesųłı̨né'' or ''Dënë Sųłınë́'', meaning "the original/real people") are a Dene Indigenous Canadian people of the Athabaskan language family, whose ancestors are identified ...
First Nation and the
Beaver Lake Cree fighting to protect their land from
tar sands
Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and wate ...
production.
In February 2013, while protesting the
Keystone XL Pipeline
The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta ...
Kennedy, along with his son, Conor, was arrested for blocking a thoroughfare in front of the White House during a protest. In August 2016, Kennedy and Waterkeeper participated in protests to block the extension of the
Dakota Access pipeline across the
Sioux Indian
Standing Rock Reservation's water supply.
Kennedy claims that the only reason the oil industry is able to remain competitive against renewables and electric cars is through massive direct and indirect subsidies and political interventions on behalf of the oil industry. In a June 2017 interview on ''EnviroNews'', Kennedy said about the oil industry, "That's what their strategy is: build as many miles of pipeline as possible. And what the industry is trying to do is to increase that level of infrastructure investment so our country won't be able to walk away from it.
Coal
Under Kennedy's leadership, Waterkeeper launched its "Clean Coal is a Deadly Lie" campaign in 2001, bringing dozens of lawsuits targeting mining practices, which include
mountaintop removal
Mountaintop removal mining (MTR), also known as mountaintop mining (MTM), is a form of surface mining at the summit or summit ridge of a mountain. Coal seams are extracted from a mountain by removing the land, or overburden, above the seams. Thi ...
,
slurry pond construction, and targeting mercury emissions and
coal ash
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when de ...
piles by coal-burning utilities. Kennedy's Waterkeeper alliance has also been leading the fight against coal export, including from terminals in the Pacific Northwest.
Kennedy has promoted replacing coal energy with renewable energy, which, he argues, would thereby reduce costs and greenhouse gases while improving air and water quality, the health of the citizens, and the number and quality of jobs.
In June 2011, film producer Bill Haney televised his award-winning film ''
The Last Mountain'', co-written by Haney and Peter Rhodes, depicting Kennedy's fight to stop
Appalachian mountaintop removal mining.
Nuclear power
Kennedy has been an opponent of conventional nuclear power, arguing that it is unsafe and not economically competitive. On June 15, 1981, he made international news when he spoke at an anti-nuclear rally at the
Hollywood Bowl, with
Stephen Stills,
Bonnie Raitt and
Jackson Browne.
His thirty-year battle to close
Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York ended in victory in January 2017, when Kennedy signed onto an agreement with New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and
Entergy
Entergy Corporation is a Fortune 500 integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations in the Deep South of the United States. Entergy is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, and gene ...
, the plant's operator, to close the plant by 2021. Kennedy was featured in a 2004 documentary, ''Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable'', directed by his sister and documentary filmmaker
Rory Kennedy
Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy (born December 12, 1968) is an American documentary filmmaker who is the eleventh and youngest child of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. Kennedy has made documentary films that center on social ...
.
Hydro
Kennedy has been an outspoken opponent of dams, particularly of dam projects that affect indigenous communities.
In 1991, Kennedy helped lead a campaign to block
Hydro-Québec from building the James Bay Hydro-project, a massive dam project in northern Quebec.
His campaigns helped block dams on Chile's
Biobío River in 1990 and its
Futaleufú River
The Futaleufú River, located in northern Patagonia, is one of the premier whitewater rivers in the world. One of only two rivers to cross the 5,308 kilometer Chile-Argentina border, the Futaleufú headwaters can be found in the glacial snow mel ...
in 2016. In 2002, he mounted what was ultimately an unsuccessful battle against building a dam on
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
's
Macal River
The Macal River is a river running through Cayo District in western Belize. Sites along the river include the ancient Mayan town of Cahal Pech and the Belize Botanic Gardens. The Macal River discharges to the Belize River. There are several tr ...
. Kennedy termed the
Chalillo Dam The Chalillo Dam is a gravity dam on the Macal River about south of San Ignacio in Cayo District, Belize. Chalillo Dam's maximum capacity is 7.0MW. The dam was constructed by Sinohydro of Beijing, China between 2002 and 2005 with the primary pu ...
"a boondoggle", and brought a high-profile legal challenge against
Fortis Inc.
Fortis Inc. is a St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador-based international diversified electric utility holding company. It operates in Canada, the United States, Central America, and the Caribbean. In 2015, it earned .
Fortis was formed in 198 ...
, a Canadian power company and the monopoly owner of Belize's electric utility.
[Guynup, Sharon (June 7, 2002). "Belize Dam Fight Heats Up as Court Prepares to Rule". ''National Geographic Today''.] In a 3–2 ruling in 2003, the
Privy Council of the United Kingdom upheld the Belizean government's decision to permit dam construction.
In 2004, Kennedy met with Provincial officials and brought foreign media and political visitors to Canada to protest the building of
hydroelectric dams on Quebec's
Magpie River.
Hydro-Quebec dropped plans for the dam in 2017.
In November 2017, the Spanish hydroelectric syndicate
Endesa
Endesa, S.A. (, originally an initialism for ''Empresa Nacional de Electricidad, S.A''.) is a Spanish multinational electric utility company, the largest in the country. The firm, a majority-owned subsidiary of the Italian utility company Enel, ...
decided to abandon
HydroAysen, a massive project to construct dams on dozens of
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...
's rivers accompanied by thousands of miles of roads, power lines and other infrastructure. Endesa returned its
water right
Water right in water law refers to the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater. In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentiou ...
s to the Chilean government. The Chilean press credits advocacy by Kennedy and Riverkeeper as critical factors in the company's decision.
Cape Wind
In 2005, Kennedy clashed with national environmental groups over his opposition to the
Cape Wind Project
The Cape Wind Project was a proposed offshore wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States. It was approvedKrasny, RosCape Wind, first U.S. offshore wind farm, approved ''Reuters'', 28 April 2010. ...
, a proposed
offshore wind farm
Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per amount of c ...
off of the coast of
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
in
Nantucket Sound
Nantucket Sound_(geography), Sound is a roughly triangular area of the Atlantic Ocean offshore from the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is long and wide, and is enclosed by Cape Cod on the north, Nantucket on the south, and Martha's Vineyard on ...
. Taking the side of Cape Cod's commercial fishing industry, Kennedy argued that the project was a costly
boondoggle
A boondoggle is a project that is considered a waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations.
Etymology
"Boondoggle" was the name of the newspaper of the Roosevelt Troop of the Boy Sco ...
. This position angered some environmentalists, and brought Kennedy criticism by industry groups and Republicans. Kennedy argued in an opinion piece in ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' that "Vermont wants to take
its nuclear plant off line and replace it with clean, green power from
HydroQuébec — power available to
Massachusetts utilities — at a cost of six cents per kilowatt hour (kwh). Cape Wind electricity, by a conservative estimate and based on figures they filed with the state, comes in at 25 cents per kwh."
Political views
Criticisms
Throughout the
presidency of George W. Bush
George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following a narrow victory over Democratic i ...
, Kennedy was a persistent critic of Bush's environmental and energy policies. He accused Bush of defunding and corrupting federal science projects.
Kennedy was also critical of Bush's 2003
hydrogen car
A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen fuel for motive power. Hydrogen vehicles include hydrogen-fueled space rockets, as well as ships and aircraft. Power is generated by converting the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energ ...
initiative, arguing that it was a gift to the fossil fuel industry disguised as a green automobile.
In 2003, Kennedy wrote an article in ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' about Bush's environmental record,
which he subsequently expanded into a ''New York Times'' bestselling book. His opposition to the environmental policies of the Bush administration earned him recognition as one of ''Rolling Stone'' "100 Agents of Change" on April 2, 2009.
During an October 2012 interview with ''
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'', Kennedy called on environmentalists to direct their dissatisfaction towards the
U.S. Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
rather than President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
, reasoning that Obama "didn't deliver" due to having a partisan U.S. Congress "like we haven't seen before in American history". He also accused politicians who failed to act on climate change policy as serving special interests and, selling out the public trust. He accused
Charles and David Koch, the owners of
Koch Industries
Koch Industries, Inc. ( ) is an American privately held multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiaries are involved in the ...
, Inc., the nation's largest privately owned oil company, of subverting democracy and for "making themselves billionaires by impoverishing the rest of us". Kennedy has spoken of the Koch Brothers as leading "the apocalyptical forces of Ignorance and Greed".
During the
2014 People's Climate March
The People's Climate March (PCM) was a large-scale activism, activist event orchestrated by the People's Climate Movement to advocate global action against climate change, which took place on Sunday, September 21, 2014, in New York City, along wi ...
, Kennedy said, "American politics is driven by two forces: One is intensity, and the other is money. The Koch brothers have all the money. They're putting $300 million this year into their efforts to stop the climate bill. And the only thing we have in our power is people power, and that's why we need to put this demonstration on the street".
U.S. foreign policy
Kennedy has written extensively on foreign policy, beginning with a 1974 ''
Atlantic Monthly'' article titled, "Poor Chile", discussing the overthrow of Chilean President
Salvador Allende
Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...
. Kennedy also wrote editorials against the execution of Pakistan President
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourt ...
by General
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...
. In 1975, he published an article in ''The Wall Street Journal'', criticizing the use of assassination as a foreign policy tool. In 2005, he wrote an article for the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' decrying President Bush's use of torture as anti-American. Senator Edward Kennedy entered the article into the ''
Congressional Record''.
In an article titled "Why the Arabs Don't Want Us in Syria", published in ''
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'' in February 2016, Kennedy referred to the "bloody history that modern
interventionists like
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
,
Ted Cruz
Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas from ...
and
Marco Rubio miss when they recite their narcissistic trope that Mideast nationalists 'hate us for our freedoms.' For the most part they don't; instead they hate us for the way we betrayed those freedoms — our own ideals — within their borders". Kennedy blames the Syrian war on a pipeline dispute. He cites apparent
WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
disclosures alleging that the CIA-led military and intelligence planners to foment a
Sunni uprising against
Syria's president,
Bashar al-Assad, following his rejection of a proposed
Qatar-Turkey pipeline through Syria in 2009, well before the
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econo ...
.
Political endorsements
Kennedy was on the National Staff and a State Coordinator for
Edward M. Kennedy for President from 1979 to 1980. Prior to that he had been on Senator Kennedy's 1970 and 1976 Massachusetts senatorial campaigns. He was a co-founder and a former board member of the New York
League of Conservation Voters
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is an American environmental advocacy group. LCV says that it "advocates for sound environmental laws and policies, holds elected officials accountable for their votes and actions, and elects pro-environmen ...
.
Kennedy endorsed and campaigned extensively for Vice President
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic no ...
during his
2000 presidential campaign, and openly opposed his friend
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes.
The son of Lebanese immigrants to the U ...
's
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
presidential campaign
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...
. In the
2004 presidential election, Kennedy endorsed
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he ...
, noting his strong environmental record.
![RFK DNC etown (1)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/RFK_DNC_etown_%281%29.jpg)
In late 2007, Kennedy and his sisters
Kerry
Kerry or Kerri may refer to:
* Kerry (name), a given name and surname of Gaelic origin (including a list of people with the name)
Places
* Kerry, Queensland, Australia
* County Kerry, Ireland
** Kerry Airport, an international airport in Count ...
and
Kathleen endorsed
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
in the
2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries
From January 3 to June 3, 2008, voters of the Democratic Party chose their nominee for president in the 2008 United States presidential election. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois was selected as the nominee, becoming the first African Am ...
. After the
Democratic Convention
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
, Kennedy campaigned for Obama across the country. After the election, he was named as a front-runner for Obama's
EPA administrator.
Kennedy has been critical of the integrity of the voting process. In June 2006, he published an article in ''Rolling Stone'' purporting to show that GOP operatives stole the 2004 presidential election for President George W. Bush.
Farhad Manjoo
Farhad Manjoo (born 1978) is an American journalist. Manjoo was a staff writer for ''Slate'' magazine from 2008 to September 2013, when they left to join ''The Wall Street Journal''. In January 2014, they joined ''The New York Times'', replacing ...
countered Kennedy's conclusions, but there were other people who argued otherwise.
Kennedy has written frequent warnings about the ease of election hacking and the dangers of voter purges and
voter ID laws
A voter identification law is a law that requires a person to show some form of identification in order to vote. In some jurisdictions requiring photo IDs, voters who do not have photo ID often must have their identity verified by someone els ...
. He wrote the introduction and a chapter in ''Billionaires and Ballot Bandits'', a 2012 book on election hacking by the investigative journalist
Greg Palast
Gregory Allyn Palast (born June 26, 1952) is an author and a freelance journalist who often worked for the BBC and ''The Guardian''. His work frequently focuses on corporate malfeasance but he has also worked with labour unions and consumer adv ...
.
Political aspirations
Kennedy first considered running for political office in 2000, when New York Senator
Daniel Patrick Moynihan did not seek re-election to the
U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Kennedy's father. His father was elected to the same seat in 1964, and held it for 41 months, until his death in 1968.
In 2005, Kennedy considered running for
New York Attorney General
The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government o ...
, which would have meant a possible run against his then brother-in-law
Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cu ...
, but in the end he decided against entering the race, even though he had been considered the frontrunner.
On December 2, 2008, Kennedy stated that he did not wish to be appointed to the U.S. Senate by New York Governor
David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. ...
. He felt that it would take too much time away from his family.
Personal opinions
Food allergies
Kennedy was a founding board member of the
Food Allergy Initiative. His son suffers from anaphylactic peanut allergies. Kennedy wrote the foreword to ''The Peanut Allergy Epidemic'', in which he and the authors falsely link increasing food allergies in children to certain vaccines that were approved beginning in 1989.
Autism and vaccines
Kennedy is the chairman of
Children's Health Defense
Children's Health Defense is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit activist group mainly known for anti-vaccine propaganda and has been identified as one of the main sources of misinformation on vaccines. Founded under the name World Mercury Project ...
(formerly the World Mercury Project), an advocacy group he founded in 2016.
The group alleges a large proportion of American children are suffering from conditions as diverse as
autism,
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inap ...
,
food allergies
A food allergy is an abnormal immune response to food. The symptoms of the allergic reaction may range from mild to severe. They may include itchiness, swelling of the tongue, vomiting, diarrhea, hives, trouble breathing, or low blood pressur ...
, cancer, and
autoimmune diseases due to exposure to certain chemicals and radiation. The Children's Health Defense has blamed and campaigned against
vaccines
A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.[< ...]
,
fluoridation of drinking water
Water fluoridation is the controlled adjustment of fluoride to a public water supply solely to reduce tooth decay. Fluoridated water contains fluoride at a level that is effective for preventing cavities; this can occur naturally or by adding ...
,
paracetamol (acetaminophen), aluminum,
wireless communications
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
, and others. Kennedy's group has been identified as one of two major buyers of anti-vaccine
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
advertising in late 2018 and early 2019.
[
In its early years, the group focused on the perceived issue of mercury in industry and medicine, especially the ethylmercury compound ]thimerosal
Thiomersal (INN), or thimerosal (USAN, JAN), is an organomercury compound. It is a well-established antiseptic and antifungal agent.
The pharmaceutical corporation Eli Lilly and Company gave thiomersal the trade name Merthiolate. It has been us ...
in vaccine
A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. s, proposed by the discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield
Andrew Jeremy Wakefield (born September 3, 1956) is a British anti-vaccine activist, former physician, and discredited academic who was struck off the medical register for his involvement in ''The Lancet'' MMR autism fraud, a 1998 study that ...
as a mechanism for the disproved link between vaccines and autism. Other members of his family have criticized Kennedy and his organization, saying he spreads "dangerous misinformation" and said his work has "heartbreaking" consequences.
According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) is a British non-profit organisation with offices in London and Washington, DC. It campaigns for big tech firms to stop providing services to individuals who may promote hate and misinformation, ...
, Kennedy leverages his status as a prominent activist for environmental causes to bolster other actors of the anti-vaccination movement, regularly appearing in online conversations with the likes of Wakefield, Del Bigtree, Rashid Buttar
Rashid Ali Buttar (January 20, 1966 – May 18, 2023) was an American conspiracy theorist, anti-vaxxer and licensed osteopathic physician. He was known for his controversial use of chelation therapy for numerous conditions, including autism an ...
.[ Kennedy has stated the media and governments are engaged in a conspiracy to deny that vaccines cause autism.] The Center for Countering Digital Hate in 2021 identified Kennedy as one of 12 people responsible for up to 65% of anti-vaccine content on social media platforms Facebook and Twitter.
In June 2005, Kennedy wrote an article in ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' and '' Salon'' called "Deadly Immunity
"Deadly Immunity" is an article written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that appeared in the July 14, 2005 issue of ''Rolling Stone'' and, simultaneously, on the website '' Salon''. The article is focused on the 2000 Simpsonwood CDC conference and cla ...
", alleging a government conspiracy to conceal a connection between thimerosal and the epidemic of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders
Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of disorders that affect the development of the nervous system, leading to abnormal brain function which may affect emotion, learning ability, self-control, and memory. The effects of neurodevelopmental ...
, including autism. The article contained five factual errors, leading ''Salon'' to issue corrections.[Lauerman, Kerry (January 16, 2011).]
Correcting our Record
. ''Salon''. Six years later ''Salon'' retracted the article completely. According to ''Salon'', the retraction was motivated by accumulating evidence of alleged errors and scientific fraud
Scientific misconduct is the violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in the publication of professional scientific research. A '' Lancet'' review on ''Handling of Scientific Misconduct in Scandinavian countrie ...
underlying the vaccine-autism claim. A corrected version of the original article can still be found on the ''Rolling Stone'' website.
In May 2013, Kennedy delivered the keynote address at the anti-vaccination AutismOne / Generation Rescue conference.
In 2014, Kennedy's book, ''Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak: The Evidence Supporting the Immediate Removal of Mercury—a Known Neurotoxin—from Vaccines'', was published. While methylmercury is a potent neurotoxin, ethylmercury, as used in vaccine preservatives, is safer. The preface to the book is written by Mark Hyman, a proponent of the alternative medical treatment called functional medicine. Kennedy has published many articles on the inclusion of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal in vaccines.
In April 2015, Kennedy participated in a Speakers' Forum to promote the film '' Trace Amounts'', which promotes the link between autism and mercury in vaccinations. At a film screening, Kennedy described the autism epidemic as a "holocaust".
On January 10, 2017, incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer
Sean Michael Spicer (born September 23, 1971) is a former American political aide who served as the 30th White House Press Secretary and as White House Communications Director under President Donald Trump in 2017. Spicer was communications dire ...
confirmed that Kennedy and President-elect
An ''officer-elect'' is a person who has been elected to a position but has not yet been installed. Notably, a president who has been elected but not yet installed would be referred to as a ''president-elect'' (e.g. president-elect of the Unit ...
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
met to discuss a position in the Trump administration. Kennedy accepted an offer made by Trump to become the chairman of the Vaccine Safety Task Force. A spokeswoman for Trump's transition said that no final decision had been made. In an August 2017 interview with '' STAT News'' reporter Helen Branswell, Kennedy said that he had been meeting with the federal public health regulators to discuss defects in vaccine safety science, at the White House's request.
On February 15, 2017, Kennedy and actor Robert De Niro gave a press conference at the National Press Club
Organizations
A press club is an organization for journalists and others professionally engaged in the production and dissemination of news. A press club whose membership is defined by the press of a given country may be known as a National Press ...
in Washington, D.C., in which they accused the press of acting as propagandists for the $35 billion vaccination industry and refusing to allow debates on vaccination science. They offered a $100,000 reward to any journalist or other citizen who could point to a study showing that it is safe to inject mercury into babies and pregnant women at levels currently contained in flu vaccines. Craig Foster, a psychology professor who studies pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable clai ...
, deemed the challenge "not science", observing that it was a "carefully constructed 'contest' that allows its creators to generate the misleading outcome they presumably want to see". He also stated that "Proving that something is safe is importantly different than proving that something is harmful".
Several members from his close family have distanced themselves from his anti-vaccination activities and condemned Kennedy's comments equating public health measures with nazi atrocities. On May 8, 2019, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend (born July 4, 1951) is an American attorney who was the sixth Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. She ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Maryland in 2002. She was the first female lieutenant ...
, Joseph P. Kennedy
Joseph Patrick Kennedy (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was an American businessman, investor, and politician. He is known for his own political prominence as well as that of his children and was the patriarch of the Irish-American Ken ...
and Maeve Kennedy McKean wrote an open letter stating that while their relative has championed many admirable causes, he "has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines". On December 30, 2020, Kennedy's niece Kerry Kennedy Meltzer, a physician, wrote a similar open letter. She argued her uncle published misinformation about the side effects of the new COVID-19 vaccines.
On June 4, 2019, during a visit to Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...
coinciding with that nation's 57th annual independence celebration, Kennedy appeared in an Instagram photo with Australian-Samoan anti-vaccine activist Taylor Winterstein
Taylor Winterstein is an Australian-Samoan online influencer known for her public anti-vaccination stance. Winterstein has been heavily criticised in several South Pacific, and Australasian countries for her anti-vaccination rhetoric and he ...
. Kennedy's charity and Winterstein have both perpetuated the allegation that the MMR vaccine played a role in the 2018 deaths of two Samoan infants, despite the subsequent revelation that the infants had received a muscle relaxant
A muscle relaxant is a drug that affects skeletal muscle function and decreases the muscle tone. It may be used to alleviate symptoms such as muscle spasms, pain, and hyperreflexia. The term "muscle relaxant" is used to refer to two major therap ...
along with the vaccine by mistake. Kennedy has drawn criticism for fueling vaccine hesitancy
Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain abou ...
amid a social climate which gave rise to the 2019 Samoa measles outbreak
The 2019 Samoa measles outbreak began in September 2019. As of 6 January 2020, there were over 5,700 cases of measles and 83 deaths, out of a Samoan population of 200,874. Over three percent of the population were infected. The cause of the o ...
, which killed over 70 people, and the 2019 Tonga measles outbreak. On February 11, 2021, his Instagram account was permanently deleted "for repeatedly sharing debunked claims" about COVID-19 vaccines.
Kennedy is listed as executive producer of ''Vaxxed II: The People's Truth'', the 2019 sequel to Wakefield's and Bigtree's anti-vaccination documentary '' Vaxxed''.
Similar to many who share his beliefs, Kennedy has claimed that he is not against vaccines but wishes that they be more thoroughly tested and investigated.
In early March 2021, Kennedy's anti-vaccine organization, Children's Health Defense released a new anti-vaccine propaganda video, " Medical Racism: The New Apartheid" that promotes COVID-19 conspiracy theories and claims that COVID-19 vaccination efforts are medical experiments on the Black community. Kennedy himself appears in the video, inviting the viewers to disregard information dispensed by health authorities and doctors. Brandi Collin-Dexter, a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center that explores the intersection and impact of media, politics and public policy in theory and practice.
Among other activities, the center or ...
states "the notorious figures and false narratives in the documentary were recognizable" and that "the film's incompatible narratives sought to take advantage of the pain felt by Black communities".
COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, Kennedy promoted multiple conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 including false claims both Anthony Fauci and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are trying to profit off a vaccine, and suggesting that Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
would cut off access to money of people who do not get vaccinated, allowing them to starve. In August 2020, Kennedy appeared in an hour-long interview with Alec Baldwin on Instagram, where he touted a number of incorrect and misleading claims about vaccines and public health measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Baldwin was criticized by public health officials and scientists for allowing Kennedy's proclamations to go unchallenged. Kennedy has promoted misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine, falsely suggesting that it contributed to the death of 86-year-old Hank Aaron
Henry Louis Aaron (February 5, 1934 – January 22, 2021), nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976. One of the gre ...
and others.[ In February 2021 his Instagram account was blocked for "repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines." The ]Center for Countering Digital Hate
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) is a British non-profit organisation with offices in London and Washington, DC. It campaigns for big tech firms to stop providing services to individuals who may promote hate and misinformation, ...
identified Kennedy as one of the main propagators of conspiracy theories about Bill Gates and 5G phone technology. His success as a conspiracy theorist increased his social media impact considerably; between the Spring and the Fall of 2020, his Instagram account grew from 121,000 followers to 454,000.
In November 2021, Kennedy's book ''The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health'' was published wherein he alleges Fauci sabotaged treatments for AIDS, violated federal laws, and conspired with Bill Gates and social media companies such as Facebook to suppress any information about COVID-19 cures, to leave vaccines as the only options to fight the pandemic.
In the book, Kennedy calls Fauci "a powerful technocrat who helped orchestrate and execute 2020’s historic coup d’etat against Western democracy". He claims Fauci and Bill Gates plan to prolong the pandemic and exaggerate its effects, promoting expensive vaccinations for the benefit of "a powerful vaccine cartel". The book repeats several discredited myths about the COVID-19 pandemic, notably about the effectiveness of ivermectin
Ivermectin (, '' EYE-vər-MEK-tin'') is an antiparasitic drug. After its discovery in 1975, its first uses were in veterinary medicine to prevent and treat heartworm and acariasis. Approved for human use in 1987, today it is used to treat i ...
. The '' Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' has said of the book "…polemics alternate with chapters that pedantically seek to substantiate Kennedy's accusations with numerous quotations and studies." He also released a video depicting Fauci with a Hitler moustache. In response to the book, Fauci called Kennedy "a very disturbed individual."
Kennedy wrote the foreword for ''Plague of Corruption
Judy Anne Mikovits (born April 1, 1958) is an American former research scientist who is known for her discredited medical claims, such as that murine endogenous retroviruses are linked to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). As an outgrowth of thes ...
'' (2020), a book by former research scientist and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Judy Mikovits
Judy Anne Mikovits (born April 1, 1958) is an American former scientist, research scientist who is known for her discredited medical claims, such as that mouse, murine endogenous retroviruses are linked to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). As an ...
.
Kennedy appeared as a speaker at the partially violent demonstration in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
on August 29, 2020, where populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...
groups called for an end to restrictions caused by COVID-19. His YouTube account was removed in late September 2021 for breaking the company's new policies on vaccine misinformation.
In a January 23, 2022, speech at an anti-vaccination rally in Washington D.C., Kennedy said: "Even in Hitler's Germany, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you can hide in the attic like Anne Frank did…Today the mechanisms are being put in place that will make it so none of us can run, none of us can hide." The Auschwitz Memorial stated on Twitter: "Exploiting of the tragedy of people who suffered, were humiliated, tortured & murdered by the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany - including children like Anne Frank - in a debate about vaccines & limitations during global pandemic is a sad symptom of moral & intellectual decay." Two days later, Kennedy apologized for his comment.
Views on the murder of Martha Moxley
In January 2003, Kennedy wrote a controversial article in ''The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
Monthly'' about the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley
Martha Elizabeth Moxley (August 16, 1960 – October 30, 1975) was a 15-year-old American high school student from Greenwich, Connecticut, who was murdered in 1975. Moxley was last seen alive spending time at the home of the Skakel fa ...
in Greenwich, Connecticut, in which he insists that his cousin Michael Skakel's indictment "was triggered by an inflamed media, and that an innocent man is now in prison." The article argues that there is more evidence suggesting that Kenneth Littleton, the Skakel family's live-in tutor, killed Moxley. He also calls Dominick Dunne
Dominick John Dunne (October 29, 1925 – August 26, 2009) was an American writer, investigative journalist, and producer. He began his career in film and television as a producer of the pioneering gay film '' The Boys in the Band'' (1970) and ...
the "driving force" behind Skakel's prosecution. In July 2016, Kennedy released a book titled ''Framed: Why Michael Skakel Spent over a Decade in Prison for a Murder He Didn't Commit''. In 2017, the rights to Kennedy's book were optioned by FX Productions
FX Productions (FXP) is an American television and in-house production company owned by FX Networks (and jointed with Disney Television Studios), a division of the Walt Disney Television unit of The Walt Disney Company. The studio currently produc ...
to develop a multi-part television series.
Views on JFK and RFK assassinations
On the evening of January 11, 2013, Charlie Rose interviewed Kennedy and his sister Rory
Rory is a given name of Gaelic origin. It is an anglicisation of the ga, Ruairí/''Ruaidhrí'' and gd, Ruairidh and is common to the Irish, Highland Scots and their diasporas. for the given name "Rory". The meaning of the name is "red king", ...
at the Winspear Opera House
The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House is an opera house (one of four venues in the AT&T Performing Arts Center) located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA).
Designed as a 21st-century reinterpretation of the traditional op ...
in Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
as a part of then Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings
Michael Scott Rawlings (born August 25, 1954) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 59th Mayor of Dallas, Texas. A member of the Democratic Party, he won the nonpartisan 2011 Dallas mayoral election defeating former Dallas ...
' hand-chosen committee's yearlong program of celebrating the life and presidency of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
.[DiEugenio, Jim (February 3, 2013). "The MSM and RFK Jr.: Only 45 years late this time". Kennedy and King (formerly CTKA).] On the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he said his father was "fairly convinced" Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963.
Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...
had not acted alone and privately believed the Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States P ...
report was a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship". According to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr in January 2013: "The evidence at this point I think is very, very convincing that it was not a lone gunman". The 2013 edition of ''JFK and the Unspeakable
''JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters'' is a book by theologian and Catholic Worker James W. Douglass ( Orbis Books, 2008; Touchstone Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2010) that analyzes the presidency of John F. Kenned ...
'' was endorsed by Kennedy, who said it had moved him to visit Dealey Plaza, the site of his uncle's assassination, for the first time.[ Orbis Books]
''JFK and the Unspeakable''
Kennedy does not believe Sirhan Sirhan
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (; ar, سرحان بشارة سرحان ''Sirḥān Bišāra Sirḥān'', born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian Jordanian man who was convicted for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
Kennedy, a United States Sena ...
was responsible for the assassination of his father, Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
, and visited the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, San Diego, in December 2017 to meet Sirhan. After meeting Sirhan, he came to the conclusion there was a second gunman and gave his support for a reinvestigation of the assassination.
Personal life
General interests
Kennedy is a licensed master falconer and has trained hawks since he was 11. He breeds hawks and falcons and is also licensed as a raptor propagator and a wildlife rehabilitator. He holds permits for Federal Game Keeper, Bird Bander, and Scientific Collector. He was President of the New York State Falconry Association from 1988 to 1991. In 1987, while on Governor Mario Cuomo's New York State Falconry Advising Committee, Kennedy authored the examination to qualify apprentice falconers given by New York State. Later that year he wrote the ''New York State Apprentice Falconer's Manual'', which was published by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and continues in use today.
Kennedy is also a whitewater kayaker. His father introduced him and his siblings to whitewater kayaking during early trips down the Green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...
and Yampa River
The Yampa River flows through northwestern Colorado in the United States. Rising in the Rocky Mountains, it is a tributary of the Green River and a major part of the Colorado River system. The Yampa is one of the few free-flowing rivers in the ...
s in Utah and Colorado, the Columbia River, the Middle Fork Salmon in Idaho, and the Upper Hudson Gorge. From 1976 to 1981, Kennedy was a partner and guide at a whitewater company, "Utopian", based in West Forks, Maine. He organized and led several "first-descent" whitewater expeditions to Latin America including three hitherto unexplored rivers: the Apurimac, Peru, in 1975; the Atrato, Colombia, in 1979; and the Caroni, Venezuela, in 1982. He made an early descent of Great Whale River
The Great Whale River () is a river in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada. It flows from Lac Saint-Luson through Lac Bienville west to Hudson Bay. While lower section of the river (after Lac Bienville) has very powerful current, with many waterfalls (up to ...
in Northern Quebec, in 1993, and has made many trips to Patagonia, Chile, to run the Biobío River, the Futaleufú and other whitewater rivers.
In 2015, he took two of his sons to the Yukon
Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...
to visit Mount Kennedy
Mount Kennedy is a peak in the Saint Elias Mountains within Kluane National Park, in Yukon, Canada. Its 4250-m to 4300-m (14000-foot) summit lies within 10 km of the Alaska Panhandle. Dusty Glacier lies against it to the north.
The Canadia ...
and run the Alsek River, a whitewater river fed by the Alsek Glacier. Mount Kennedy had been Canada's highest unclimbed peak, when the Canadian Government named it for the assassinated American president, in 1964. In 1965, his father Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
was the first person to climb Mount Kennedy.
Marriages and children
On April 3, 1982, Kennedy married Emily Ruth Black (born 1957), whom he had met at the University of Virginia School of Law. They had two children: Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy III (born 1984; married to writer, peace activist and former CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
officer Amaryllis Fox) and Kathleen Alexandra ('Kick') Kennedy (born 1988). The latter shares the nickname of her great-aunt, the late Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington
Kathleen Agnes Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington (' Kennedy; February 20, 1920 – May 13, 1948), also known as "Kick" Kennedy, was an American socialite. She was the second daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Kennedy as well as a si ...
.
The couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1994.
On April 15, 1994, Kennedy married Mary Kathleen Richardson (1959–2012) aboard a research vessel on the Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
. They had four children: Conor Richardson Kennedy (born 1994), Kyra LeMoyne Kennedy (born 1995), William Finbar "Finn" Kennedy (born 1997), and Aidan Caohman Vieques Kennedy (born 2001). On May 12, 2010, Kennedy filed for divorce from Mary; three days later she was charged with drunk driving. On May 16, 2012, Mary was found dead in a building on the grounds of her home in Mount Kisco, New York. The Westchester County Medical Examiner ruled the death to be a suicide due to asphyxiation from hanging.
Kennedy married his third wife, actress-director Cheryl Hines
Cheryl Ruth Hines (born September 21, 1965) is an American actress and director, best known for playing the role of Larry David's wife, Cheryl, on HBO's ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', for which she has been nominated for two Emmy Awards. She also s ...
, on August 2, 2014, at the Kennedy compound
The Kennedy Compound consists of three houses on of waterfront property on Cape Cod along Nantucket Sound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in the United States. It was once the home of Joseph P. Kennedy, an American businessman, investor, poli ...
in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts
Hyannis Port (or Hyannisport) is a small residential village located in Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States. It is an affluent summer community on Hyannis Harbor, 1.4 miles (2.3 km) to the south-southwest of Hyannis.
Community
It has ...
. They were introduced by Larry David
Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom ''Seinfeld'', on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first seve ...
, whose wife Hines played in the HBO series '' Curb Your Enthusiasm'', and began dating in 2012.
Health
In 2008, it was reported that Kennedy has spasmodic dysphonia
Spasmodic dysphonia, also known as laryngeal dystonia, is a disorder in which the muscles that generate a person's voice go into periods of spasm. This results in breaks or interruptions in the voice, often every few sentences, which can make a pe ...
, which causes his voice to quaver
180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest.
180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together.
An eighth note (American) or a quaver ( British) is a musical note pla ...
and makes speech difficult. It is a form of an involuntary movement disorder called dystonia that affects only the larynx.
Selected works
Kennedy has authored books on subjects such as the environment, science, biography, and American heroes, including three bestsellers and three children's books.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Children's books
*
*
*
Select awards and recognition
Over the course of his career, Kennedy has received numerous awards in his name and on behalf of organizations and causes that he has championed.
*2018, The National Trial Lawyers, Mass Tort Trial Team of the Year - for "groundbreaking case of Dewayne "Lee" Johnson v. Monsanto Company"
*2017, Earth Justice
Earthjustice (originally Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) is a nonprofit public interest organization based in the United States dedicated to litigating environmental issues. Headquartered in San Francisco, it has 14 regional offices across the Un ...
Mountain Heroes
*2017, Foro La Region Award for "La Proteccion de los Recrsos Naturales"
*2014, Stroud Award of Freshwater Excellence
*2009, ''Rolling Stone'' "100 Agents of Change"
*2008, USC Dornsife Sustainability Champion Award
*2008, Theodre Gordon Flyfishers Conservation Award
*2007, ''Vanity Fair'' "The Green Team"
*2005, William O. Douglas Award, on behalf of the Waterkeeper Alliance
*2003, Professional Resource Award, NY State Council of Trout Unlimited
*2001, Distinguished Service Award presented at Pace Law School
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is the law school of Pace University located in White Plains, New York. Founded in 1976 as Pace Law School, the American Bar Association (ABA) accredited it in 1978. Pace has a top-ranked Envi ...
's 25th Anniversary
*2001, ''Men's Journal'' "Heroes" Award
*2000, 12th Annual Manhattan Award
*2000, Jacques Sartisky Peace Award
*2000, New York State Champion of the Environment
*1999, ''Time Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...
'' "Heroes of the Planet"
*1998, William E. Ricker Resource Conservation Award
*1997, EPA Environmental Quality Award
*1997, The Brave 40 Award from NYC Department of Environmental Conservation
*1997, Thomas Berry Environmental Award, presented to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic
*1995, Green Star Award presented by the Environmental Action Coalition
*1991, Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Award
See also
* Bobby Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, a ...
– Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s father
* Deadly Immunity
"Deadly Immunity" is an article written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that appeared in the July 14, 2005 issue of ''Rolling Stone'' and, simultaneously, on the website '' Salon''. The article is focused on the 2000 Simpsonwood CDC conference and cla ...
* Environmental law
* Kennedy family
The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy beca ...
* Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance is a worldwide network of environmental organizations founded in 1999 in response to a growing movement of organizations with such names as Riverkeeper, Baykeeper and Soundkeeper. By December 2019, the group said it had gro ...
* Vaccines and autism
Extensive investigation into vaccines and autism has shown that there is no relationship between the two, causal or otherwise, and that the vaccine ingredients do not cause it. Vaccinologist Peter Hotez researched the growth of the false claim ...
References
External links
Pace Law School Profile
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Robert F. Jr.
1954 births
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