Robert Kennedy Jr files to run for US president

ROBERT F Kennedy Jr, the political activist known most recently for his campaign to discredit coronavirus vaccines, filed paperwork on Wednesday (Apr 5) to run for president as a Democrat, offering a potential long-shot challenge to President Joe Biden.

Kennedy, the son and namesake of Robert F Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for president in 1968, has not made a formal announcement. However, he teased a run at a political gathering in New Hampshire last month, telling a crowd: “I’ve passed the biggest hurdle, which is, my wife has greenlighted it.”

He has set up a website to solicit donations and volunteers for a potential run, and a tweet pinned to his Twitter account says he will run if “I can raise the money and mobilise enough people to win”.

Kennedy, 69, was once a top environmental lawyer, but his interests veered away from the Democratic mainstream into conspiracy theories, for which he has earned the public rebuke of some members of his prominent family. A long-time vaccine sceptic, he linked childhood vaccinations to autism, a claim thoroughly rebuked by medical experts.

In a recent book, he claimed that Dr Anthony Fauci, who was Biden’s top medical adviser for the coronavirus pandemic, and Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, conspired with drug companies to profit from vaccines. Instagram blocked Kennedy’s account for spreading vaccine misinformation in 2021.

If he becomes a candidate, Kennedy wrote on Twitter, his top priority will be to “end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power”.

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While many Democrats express concerns about Biden as a candidate in 2024, when he would be 81 on Election Day, no major party leaders are actively exploring a primary challenge. The only well-known announced challenger to date is author Marianne Williamson, who also ran in 2020. NYTIMES