Known for his controversial views on vaccinations, Kennedy's presidential campaign is going just as you'd expect
By KELLY MCCLURE
Nights & Weekends Editor
PUBLISHED APRIL 23, 2023
PUBLISHED APRIL 23, 2023
Robert F Kennedy Jr., with his wife Cheryl Hines, waves to supporters during a campaign event to launch his 2024 presidential bid, at the Boston Park Plaza in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 19, 2023. (JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
On Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially announced his bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination and has been making campaign rounds with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines — best known for her role as Cheryl David in "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Making an appearance on Fox News this weekend, Kennedy Jr. did not shy away from his controversial beliefs on COVID-19 and vaccinations in general, telling host Neil Cavuto he believes that the restrictions put forth during the pandemic led to the eradication of the middle class.
On Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially announced his bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination and has been making campaign rounds with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines — best known for her role as Cheryl David in "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Making an appearance on Fox News this weekend, Kennedy Jr. did not shy away from his controversial beliefs on COVID-19 and vaccinations in general, telling host Neil Cavuto he believes that the restrictions put forth during the pandemic led to the eradication of the middle class.
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"The strength of a nation comes from a strong economy and a vibrant middle class. And we have wiped out the middle class in this country systematically," Kennedy Jr. said.
Going further into his explanation of why he believes the middle class was negatively impacted by the lockdown, the Democratic presidential hopeful said, "Worst of all is what it did to the economy . . . We shifted $4 trillion in wealth from the American middle class to this new aristocracy of billionaires. We created 500 new billionaires. The Oxfam report, which came out this week, shows that the billionaires that existed at the beginning of the pandemic, the people like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeffrey Bezos, Bloomberg, etc., increased their wealth by 30% during the pandemic. From the lockdowns. And Amazon got to shut down all of its competitors."
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The nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, Jr. went on to describe why he's the best candidate to run against Trump saying:
"I'm in a better position to run against Donald Trump than any of the Democrats because I can hold him accountable for the worst thing that he did, which was the lockdowns. The lockdowns were absolutely catastrophic.
Hines, who has been introducing Kennedy Jr. during this week's campaign events, has previously gone on record as having different beliefs than her husband when it comes to COVID-19 and vaccinations.
In January 2022, Hines gave a statement in response to a comment her husband made which compared vaccine mandates to Anne Frank and Nazi Germany saying, "My husband's reference to Anne Frank at a mandate rally in D.C. was reprehensible and insensitive. The atrocities that millions endured during the Holocaust should never be compared to anyone or anything. His opinions are not a reflection of my own."
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By KELLY MCCLURE
Kelly McClure is a journalist and fiction writer who lives in New Orleans. She is Salon's Nights and Weekends Editor covering daily news, politics and culture. Her work has been featured in Vulture, The A.V. Club, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Nylon, Vice, and elsewhere. She is the author of Something is Always Happening Somewhere.
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