RFK Jr. Backs Trump, Sparking Family Outrage and Accusations of Betrayal

After independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, five of his siblings accused him of betraying the family's values.

We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride, Kerry Kennedy and four other siblings of Kennedy wrote in a statement. We believe in Harris and Walz. Our brother Bobby's decision to endorse Trump is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.

Last Friday, Kennedy stated that he would suspend his presidential campaign activities and support Trump. He claimed that he was not withdrawing from the presidential race, but he would remove his name from ten key states and continue to run in other states.

In his speech last Friday, Kennedy spent most of his time criticizing the Democratic Party and the media for not giving him fair treatment.

In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic path of electoral victory in the face of this relentless, systematic censorship and media control, he said at a press conference last Friday. So I cannot, in good conscience, ask my staff and volunteers to keep working their long hours, or ask my donors to keep giving when I cannot honestly tell them that I have a real path to the White House.

Kerry Kennedy is the president of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization. She co-wrote the statement with Courtney Kennedy, Chris Kennedy, Rory Kennedy, and former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Katherine Kennedy Townsend.

Kennedy comes from the famous American Kennedy family, whose father was the well-known Democratic politician Robert Kennedy, and whose uncle was the former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat who was assassinated in 1963.

Since Kennedy announced his run for the presidency last year, his family has often criticized his decision to run as an independent candidate.

Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment. Today's announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country, some of Kennedy's siblings wrote last year.