The legendary Kennedy clan endorsed the American president Joe Biden during a trip to Philadelphia this Thursday, in front of the black sheep of the family and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
This support is important given the fear that “RFK Jr”an environmental lawyer known for his opposition to vaccines, could tip the balance in favor of Republican Donald Trump in the November presidential election.
The lawyer is the son of former Democratic Attorney General “Bobby” Kennedy, assassinated in 1968.
The candidate's sister, Kerry Kennedyintroduced Biden at a rally, the highlight of a three-day tour of the crucial state of Pennsylvania.
“Almost all of Rose and Joe Kennedy's grandchildren support Joe Biden. That's right, the Kennedy family endorses Joe Biden for president,” Kerry Kennedy said, referring to the clan patriarchs.
He did not mention RFK Jr by name, but hinted at the risk Biden runs if people vote for his brother, saying there were “only two candidates with any chance of winning”: Biden and Trump.
“We all need to come together in a campaign that should unite not only Democrats but all Americans, including Republicans and independents,” he said.
Biden responded by presenting himself as the political heir to his father Bobby Kennedy.
The 81-year-old Democrat keeps a bronze bust of Robert F. Kennedy Sr. in the Oval Office, visible behind him in photos of his meetings with foreign dignitaries at the White House.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr said he respects his family's decision to support his electoral rival.
“I have heard that some members of my family will support President Biden today. I am glad that they are politically active: it is a family tradition,” he said on the social network X. “We are divided in our opinions but united in our love for each other.”
Biden will also speak at another event hosted by RFK Jr's nephew, Joe Kennedy III, Biden's special envoy to Northern Ireland for economic affairs.
It is not the first show of force in support of Biden by the Kennedys, the most mythologized family in the United States.
Dozens of Kennedys posed alongside Biden for a photo in the White House Rose Garden on St. Patrick's Day in March, celebrating their common Irish heritage.
Biden has included the Kennedys in his political narrative for some time.
Biden biographies say he long tried to emulate the rhetoric of John F. Kennedy, the young Democratic president assassinated at his peak in 1963.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may pose a danger to Biden's hopes of winning a second term.
The candidate, who has spread misinformation downplaying the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, has double-digit support in polls with less than seven months until the election.
Democrats have learned to fear independents after George W. Bush defeated Al Gore in 2000 and Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 due, among other things, to the emergence of independent candidates.
Kennedy, 70, began his White House bid as a Democrat but dropped out of the primary campaign under pressure, he says, from Biden allies.
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