Tension in Camelot over RFK Jr’s run at the White House

Washington: Jack Schlossberg had had enough. The only grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, Schlossberg had been watching the presidential campaign of his cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr with increasing dismay.

To Schlossberg, the quixotic challenge to President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination was just a “vanity project” that was tarnishing the legacy of his grandfather and their storied family. Just days earlier last month, his conspiracy-minded cousin had suggested that the COVID-19 virus had been engineered to protect Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.

Sitting in a van in Australia, where he was on vacation, Schlossberg sketched out a few bullet points, took out his mobile phone and recorded a harsh condemnation of his cousin on Instagram. “He’s trading in on Camelot, celebrity, conspiracy theories and conflict for personal gain and fame,” Schlossberg said. “I’ve listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president. What I do know is his candidacy is an embarrassment.” Then he hit the post button.

Schlossberg’s denunciation underscored the turmoil inside what remains of Camelot. Bobby, as the 69-year-old candidate is called, has become a source of deep anguish among his many siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews, one that is testing the bonds of what was once known as the royal family of American politics. His relatives by and large do not want him to run, do not support his campaign, disdain his conspiratorial musings and almost universally admire Biden, a longtime friend of the family who keeps a bust of Robert F. Kennedy Sr in the Oval Office.

Yet even as some members of the candidate’s family feel compelled to speak out against his campaign, others find themselves profoundly pained by the airing of domestic discord. They do not share his views on many issues, particularly his strident anti-vaccine stances, these Kennedys say, but they care for him, do not want to see him hurt and do not think it helps to publicly criticise him.

“I love my brother deeply, and while I don’t agree with him on a number of issues, theories, I do not want to knock him,” said Courtney Kennedy Hill, one of the candidate’s sisters. “He has done a lot of good for many, many people,” she added, citing his work as an environmental lawyer who helped clean up the Hudson River and his advocacy for those struggling with drug addiction. “I just don’t want all that to get lost in the maelstrom around his more controversial statements and views.”

Never before has the family faced a conundrum quite like this. Through all the tragedies and scandals and campaigns over the years, the traditional Kennedy rule has always been to pull together, to stand by one another no matter what. Family was the rock. Solidarity was the code. But as he polls at around 15 per cent against Biden, Robert F. Kennedy Jr has roiled a family that wants nothing to do with his campaign and telephone lines between Kennedy homes burn with what-to-do agonising.

“It must be painful for them,” said Bob Shrum, who for years was one of the leading advisers to Edward M. Kennedy, the senator and patriarch known as Ted. “He’s been through some struggles himself,” Shrum added of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, “and I think they want to love him. But at the same time, they can’t abide this. It’s very sad at every level.”