Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known anti-vaccine campaigner and environmentalist, officially began his 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday by filing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.
Kennedy Jr. filed to run against President Biden as a Democrat in the upcoming election, joining self-help author Marianne Williamson as the only other major party contender.
The 69-year-old is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, a former US attorney general, senator, and candidate for president in 1968 who was fatally murdered by Sirhan Sirhan while out campaigning.
Moreover, he is John F. Kennedy’s nephew, a former president who was also slain while in office.
Kennedy Jr. has been one of the most vocal anti-vaccines voices throughout the years.
After the COVID-19 pandemic and the creation of vaccinations that provide protection against the virus, his anti-vaccine campaigns only become more ferocious.
Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, saw a more than doubling of its income to $6.8 million in 2020.
For disseminating false information regarding the COVID-19 vaccine to his more than 800,000 followers, Instagram banned RFK Jr. in February 2021.
He had claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine was to blame for the passing of Major League Baseball icon Hank Aaron.
While speaking to anti-vaccine protesters on the National Mall in Washington, DC, last year, Kennedy Jr. came under criticism for remarking that Anne Frank had it easier hiding from the Nazis than Americans have trying to avoid vaccination requirements.
During his address, he said, “Even in Hitler’s Germany you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did. Today the mechanisms are being put in place to make it so that none of us can run and none of us can hide.”
He disseminated conspiracies regarding 5G and virtual currency at the same rally.
“They’re putting in 5G to harvest our data and control our behavior.” He stated that they would be able to punish us remotely and stop supplying us with food by using digital currency.
Last month, the Kennedy family descendant made known that he was thinking about running for president.
“If it looks like I can raise the money and mobilize enough people to win, I’ll jump in the race. If I run, my top priority will be to end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedoms. Together we can restore America’s democracy.”
