Kerry Kennedy, RFK Jr.'s sister, meets with Arizona Republicans on behalf of Kamala Harris
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s sister appeared in Arizona on Tuesday to campaign in support of the Democratic presidential ticket her brother spurned in favor of Republican former President Donald Trump.
Following an intimate meet-and-greet with a group of Arizona Republicans supporting Harris’ campaign, Kerry Kennedy argued that Trump’s vision is “anathema” to her family’s legacy and values.
“I love Bobby,” she told The Arizona Republic. “But I think this is dramatically misguided. And I think it tramples on my father’s and my uncles’ and aunts’ reputations and their vision.”
The visit serves as a reminder of the disapproval her brother has found from many in RFK Jr.'s famous family as he has drifted from a Democratic presidential candidate to an independent to a prominent supporter of Trump.
Her visit comes several days after RFK Jr. announced Friday in Phoenix that he was suspending his presidential campaign in swing states and backing Trump. He took the stage with Trump later that day during the former president’s packed rally in Glendale’s Desert Diamond Arena.
In an interview, Kerry Kennedy framed the presidential election as a choice between a vision of “opportunity” and one of “anger” offered by Trump. She ticked off a list of criticisms of the former president: panning what she described as his anger, rage, chaos, racism and 34 felony indictments.
The list also included “his hatred of immigrants,” “his rage at ordinary Americans who are struggling in this country,” and his promise that he will suspend the Constitution in order to go after people who criticize him.”
“Those are stark choices,” she said.
RFK Jr., who has embraced a range of conspiracy theories on the campaign trail, explained his decision on Friday as an outgrowth of a Democratic Party that is “corrupt” and in league with the media to silence critics and support the war in Ukraine to fuel the interests of the “military-industrial complex.”
“The mainstream media was once the guardian of the First Amendment and democratic principles, and it has joined this systemic attack on democracy,” he said.
Kerry Kennedy said the endorsement was a “significant pivot” by her brother and said she had “extensively” voiced her view of Trump to him via text. She put out a written statement with four of her siblings calling his “betrayal” of their father’s legacy “a sad ending to a sad story.”
In Phoenix she was also scheduled to speak at multiple undisclosed events in Phoenix with organized labor leader Dolores Huerta, who helped mobilize Latinos with Kennedy’s father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Sr., leading up to the fateful California primary in his 1968 presidential campaign.
Kennedy Sr. was assassinated on June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles. Trump has used the matter to bond with RFK Jr., who has been openly doubtful of the assassination’s official narrative. At last week’s rally, the former president, who recently survived an attempt on his own life, pledged to release all of the documents pertaining to the assassination of the elder Kennedy.
In 2017, RFK Jr. visited Sirhan Sirhan, his father's convicted assassin, in a California prison and told the Washington Post that he had concluded that Sirhan was not the assassin. In 2021, his then-93-year-old mother, Ethel Kennedy, publicly contradicted RFK Jr.'s call for Sirhan to be paroled.
Kerry Kennedy called conspiracy theories about her father's assassination "gobbledygook.”
She has previously campaigned for President Joe Biden in Pennsylvania in April.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kerry Kennedy meets with Arizona Republicans on behalf of Harris
