Sibling rivalry: Kennedys back Biden over one of their own — with plans to ‘make up afterwards’In an exclusive Sneed interview, Chicago businessman Chris Kennedy talked about not supporting the independent White House bid of his brother Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the family’s Oval Office chat with Joe Biden.
Chris Kennedy (left) participates in a debate in Chicago in 2018; Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (right) attends a campaign event in Oakland, California, on March 26, 2024.
Nam Y. Huh/AP; Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
If a picture is worth a thousand words — how many votes is it worth?
A recent photo on social media showcasing America’s legendary Kennedy clan on the steps of President Biden’s White House was obviously a message of strong political support for the reelection of Uncle Joe.
But it also had a dual intent. Love … and shove.
President Joe Biden is also facing an opponent who is a member of their family: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running as an independent.
The message? RFK Jr. may be family. One of us. But we won’t be voting for him. We will extract cuts with grace and wield silk boxing gloves, but we are tossing our support elsewhere.
But family fealty/friendliness can only go so far.
An exclusive Sneed interview this week with RFK Jr.’s younger brother, Chicago businessman Chris Kennedy, who is also chairman of his family’s investment firm, signaled a more pointed script.
“This would not be happening had our father lived,” said Kennedy, referring to their famous father, U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while he was a leading Dem primary candidate for President in 1968.
Chris Kennedy did not elaborate on what is obviously still a family heartache.
“You know, if you stare into the abyss long enough … and try to unravel it, it can be consuming,” added Chris Kennedy, whose uncle, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
Chris Kennedy and his brother were also on opposite sides of the fence on the parole request by Sirhan Sirhan, their father’s assassin, who failed to win his 16th attempt for freedom last year. Chris Kennedy spoke out forcefully against it before the California parole board. (Sneed exclusive on March 5, 2023.)
RFK Jr. supported Sirhan’s parole.
Back on the campaign trail …“So, l expect to be busy campaigning for Joe Biden in the general election,” said Chris Kennedy. “Fifty family members invited to the White House on St. Patrick’s Day are all on board to make it clear we are supporting President Biden since one of our own is running against him!”
The Kennedy brigade met Biden in the Oval Office, “where a bust of our father can be spotted looking over his shoulder as a backdrop,” Chris Kennedy said.
“Then he told us stories; how our father ignored warnings not to go to a pre-scheduled trip to Indianapolis at the same time Chicago and Los Angeles were blowing up when Martin Luther King was killed.
“Biden told us how our father went anyway, putting himself in harm’s way to serve others. He was a hero.”
Tragically, the Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at a motel in Memphis, Tenn. Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated two months later — June 6, 1968 at a hotel in California.
The interview ended with the Kennedy family touch: “As a family, we’ve all been involved in politics, just like we’ve always been involved in family sports … and I expect we will continue to play like hell on the field, make up afterwards, probably jump in the ocean together and then head to our mother’s house for dinner … just like after every election.” |
