The first question Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received when he sat down with Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream for his first big TV interview after dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Donald Trump was about reported text messages he sent recently in which he referred to Trump as a “terrible human being,” “barely human,” and “probably a sociopath.” By the end of the interview, he was confronted with implicit and explicit disapproval from his own family.
Kennedy did not dispute the veracity of those texts, instead explaining that once he realized as had no “path to victory” as an independent candidate, he decided to throw his support behind a man he evidently doesn’t respect because Trump actively courted his favor—unlike Kamala Harris.
“He invited me to form a unity government and we agreed to be able to continue to criticize each other on issues on which we don’t agree,” Kennedy said, but their shared desire to “make American children healthy again,” as he put it, alluding to his history of opposition to childhood vaccines, meant he could overlook everything else.
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Since Kennedy officially came out in support of Trump last week, there has been much speculation about how his wife, Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines, is taking the news, given that she has made her opposition to Trump well-known in the past—and even suggested she would divorce her husband if he were named as Trump’s running mate.
Kennedy acknowledged the tension on Twitter this past Friday when he posted, “I am so grateful to my amazing wife Cheryl for her unconditional love, as I made a political decision with which she is very uncomfortable. I wish this also for the country—love and unity even in the face of disagreement. We will need that in coming times.”
Towards the end of his appearance on Fox Sunday morning, Bream brought up the “personal cost” of Kennedy’s Trump embrace, referencing his tweet about Hines and the fact that nearly all of his extended family previously endorsed Joe Biden and are now supporting Harris. “Talk to us about the personal backlash you have a deal with,” she said.
“My family is at the center of the Democratic Party,” Kennedy replied, adding that he has family members working within the Biden administration and that President Biden himself has a bust of his late father, Robert F. Kennedy, sitting behind his desk in the Oval Office. “My family is—I understand that they are troubled by my decisions, but I love my family,” he continued. “I feel like we were raised in a millieu where we were encouraged to debate each other and debate ferociously and passionately about things, but to still love each other. They are free to take their positions on these issues.”
