Kerry Kennedy, the sister of Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has publicly condemned her brother’s recent remarks on COVID-19 and ethnic targeting.
“I strongly condemn my brother’s deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting,” Kennedy said in a statement Monday through her family’s nonprofit organization, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
Kerry Kennedy, the president of the nonprofit organization named after her late father, added that her brother’s remarks don’t align with what the group advocates for.
“His statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stand for, with our 50+-year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination.”
RFK Jr. is facing mounting criticism from Democratic leaders after the New York Post reported that Kennedy made repeated, unsubstantiated and offensive conspiracy theories about COVID-19.
In an audio recording obtained by the Post, Kennedy said at a press event that the virus was a genetically engineered bioweapon that could have been “ethnically targeted” to prevent the deaths of Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairwoman Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) last week blasted RFK Jr.’s remarks, calling them “reprehensible anti-semitic and anti-Asian comments” in a statement Sunday.
“Such dangerous racism and hate have no place in America, demonstrate him to be unfit for public office, and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” DelBene said.
Kennedy, who announced his 2024 presidential campaign in April, has long been a prominent vaccine skeptic.
YouTube removed an interview between Kennedy and Jordan Peterson last month for violating its guidelines against vaccine misinformation.
Kennedy’s personal Instagram account was reinstated last month after he was permanently removed from the platform in 2021 for repeatedly posting misinformation about COVID-19.