When members of the Kennedy household joined President Biden in Philadelphia to endorse his re-election — and denounce the presidential candidacy of the best-known Kennedy of this era, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — one particular person stepped ahead to make the household’s case: his youthful sister Kerry.
“Almost each single grandchild of Joe and Rose Kennedy helps Joe Biden,” Ms. Kennedy stated as her siblings, and Mr. Biden, flanked her onstage. “That’s proper: The Kennedy household endorses Joe Biden for president.”
That was not the primary time that Ms. Kennedy, the seventh baby of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, had been the face of the household’s pushback towards her brother. As Mr. Kennedy has emerged as a skeptic of Covid-19 vaccines and a purveyor of conspiratorial theories on the assassination of his father, it has fallen to Ms. Kennedy to distance her household from the brother she has lengthy held shut and to protect the legacy of a proud and personal household because it fades from the political stage.
To a big extent, Ms. Kennedy’s siblings say, her outsize position is an outgrowth of the love she has displayed towards her brother since they had been youngsters taking part in on the grounds of the household property in Hickory Hill, Va. — and the frustration she feels now. It’s political as properly: She argues that her brother’s rebel marketing campaign threatens the re-election of Mr. Biden and is conscious that her household might shoulder a number of the blame ought to Donald J. Trump return to the White Home subsequent yr.
“I really like Bobby,” she stated in an interview. “It’s heart-wrenching to be on this place.”
However Kerry Kennedy’s determination to assist lead an inevitably awkward effort towards a member of the family additionally displays her concern in regards to the legacy of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the group based upon her father’s loss of life in 1968 that she has led for 15 years.
As its president, she has championed causes that mirrored her father’s work: worldwide human rights, combating towards disparities in well being care and advocating for immigrants. In some instances, the positions which were embraced by her brother, significantly his opposition to Covid vaccination, have run immediately counter to the mission of the group.
“Kerry feels a particular burden together with his candidacy — a burden that impacts her work in a unfavourable manner,” stated Christopher G. Kennedy, certainly one of their brothers. “She has supported lots of of human rights activists world wide. Her talents can be diminished if the Kennedy identify is related to fringe pondering, crackpot concepts and unsound judgment.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declined to touch upon his sister’s position within the Biden marketing campaign. “I believe I’ll keep out of this controversy,” he stated in a textual content message.
It has been 56 years since Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. However Ms. Kennedy, 64, stated that many individuals, significantly youthful generations, not distinguished between a father and a son who share the identical identify.
“Anyone can go take a look at the responses on my X feed or Instagram and see there’s plenty of confusion on the market,” she stated within the interview. “I’ve been compelled to make clear when the group differs on points akin to the protection of vaccines, the position of H.I.V. in inflicting AIDS, the explanation individuals are transgender and the position of platforms curbing disinformation, to call just a few.”
Ms. Kennedy’s view on the potential impression of her brother’s candidacy shouldn’t be shared throughout the household. “I believe the error the media makes is to assume that his attraction to folks is solely based mostly on his relationship to our household,” stated Douglas H. Kennedy, one other of their brothers, who has not joined his siblings within the pushback as a result of, he stated, of his work as a correspondent on Fox Information. “I consider his followers are unaffected by his siblings’ or cousins’ issues. His supporters consider in his message. I don’t assume folks popping out towards him may have an important impact on that assist.”
The Biden marketing campaign disagrees. It’s shifting to deploy Ms. Kennedy, in addition to different relations, in swing states within the coming months if her brother continues to make it onto ballots. “I’ve advised the Biden marketing campaign that I’ll marketing campaign wherever they need me to go,” she stated.
Biden marketing campaign officers stated their polling confirmed that many individuals have no idea a lot about Mr. Kennedy or what he stands for, and that Kennedy relations are significantly efficient at filling within the gaps.
“We’re honored to have the Kennedys’ assist, and we look ahead to working with them to unfold the message on the marketing campaign path about how the president is carrying on the Kennedy legacy,” Lauren Hitt, a marketing campaign spokeswoman, stated.
Ms. Kennedy isn’t any stranger to being within the highlight. Her marriage to Andrew M. Cuomo in 1990, earlier than he was elected governor of New York, was a merger of two of the nation’s most well-known political households. It happened within the church in Washington, D.C., the place John F. Kennedy’s funeral was held in 1963 as digicam crews and photographers waited exterior. That union led to divorce 15 years later, the small print of the breakup strewn throughout the tabloids. She by no means remarried.
Seven years after the top of the wedding, Ms. Kennedy was arrested and charged with driving whereas below the affect in northern Westchester County, N.Y. She stated she had mistakenly taken a single sleeping tablet earlier than coming into her automobile. A jury took lower than an hour to seek out her not responsible, however the case made her life tabloid fodder as soon as once more.
Ms. Kennedy endured however largely stayed out of the general public highlight — not like not too long ago.
Her earnest attraction for Mr. Biden — the timbre of her voice acquainted to anybody who watched her father or uncle — has provided a distinction to a collection of mocking Instagram posts by John F. Kennedy’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, 31, wherein he employs quite a lot of accents to belittle his cousin as disingenuous and unintelligent.
On social media, Ms. Kennedy’s posts embody clips of her father’s speeches, odes to human rights leaders akin to John Lewis and tributes to her 96-year-old mom. (“Mummy is a masterclass in championing the rights of others,” she wrote not too long ago.) Ms. Kennedy stated she had not spoken to Mr. Schlossberg about his posts.
Ms. Kennedy now finds herself using the crest of what’s an uncommon second for a household that prides itself on maintaining inside dissent out of the general public eye.
“They’ve all the time discovered from J.F.Ok.’s era that you just preserve all of the unhealthy issues which can be contained in the household contained in the household,” stated Laurence Leamer, who has written a collection of books on the Kennedy household. “That’s ending right here.”
However by all of it, the household has sought to stay collectively. “This isn’t towards Bobby — that is for Biden,” stated Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, an older sister. “We’ve been for Biden a very long time.”
Kerry Kennedy, stated she nonetheless noticed her brother at household occasions, together with on the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Mass. “Bobby was as much as the Cape just a few instances final summer season,” she stated. “We had been each in Aspen on trip and sitting across the lunch desk. We ship texts — we now have a household textual content change — so there’s backwards and forwards. However he’s not calling me for my recommendation.”
Christopher Kennedy stated he steadily shared his issues together with his brother about what he was doing. “Folks confront me on the grocery retailer — ‘Why are you letting your brother get away with this?’” he stated. “I believe we are going to all get blamed if Bobby causes this final result to happen.”
“I might say that, like all true believers, he’s unreachable,” he stated. “That hardening of the shell has undoubtedly occurred.”
Ms. Kennedy stated she was resigned to the truth that her brother was pushing on by the election and even recommended that she had come to just accept — or at the least perceive — this newest marketing campaign by a Kennedy.
“Ultimately, why is he on the market doing this?” she stated. “For a similar motive I’m on the market. As a result of we each consider the stakes are excessive.”
