Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems desperate to make sure no one thinks his wife, Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines, is on board with the MAGA movement. In fact, he insists now, Hines only pushed him to meet with Donald Trump “out of compassion.”
“Cheryl’s reaction was the opposite of encouraging,” RFK told TMZ Live on Tuesday, referring to the meeting he took with Trump that would ultimately lead to his endorsement of the former president’s campaign. “She attended the meeting just to make sure there were no hasty decisions made” about his joining the Republican ticket, he added.
Kennedy said on The Tucker Carlson Show this week that it wasn’t until Hines urged him to “hear [Trump] out” that he agreed to meet with the Republican presidential candidate. Before that, he had assumed it would be a “non-starter” for Hines, who’d previously agreed with him that their marriage would not “survive” if he became Trump’s VP.
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He now says Hines only attended the meeting with Trump to show her support for her husband. “It was not something that she ever encouraged,” he said. “It was an emotional night for everyone and she made the right judgment.”
Hines has been brutally trolled on social media for not speaking out against her husband as his own family had, as he endorsed Trump’s bid for the presidency after withdrawing his own. Even as industry peers criticized her, including West Wing actor Bradley Whitford who tweeted at Hines, “Way to stay silent while your lunatic husband throws his support behind the adjudicated rapist who brags about stripping women of their fundamental rights,” she has refused to address the endorsement publicly, only expressing her “heartfelt thanks” to the staffers and supporters of her husband’s campaign.
Now, Kennedy has come to her defense, assuring the public that though Hines supports him as his wife, she is not, herself, a supporter of Trump’s reelection. Kennedy told TMZ, “She urged me to [take the meeting with Trump] and she did that out of compassion,” he explained. “She went along with it because she loves me and she wanted to be supportive of me.”
As for Whitford’s comments, Kennedy said he had to “suppress some strong feelings,” after reading the way Whitford addressed his wife. “Instead of challenging me, he’s attacking my wife,” Kennedy said in response, “What kind of person—what kind of man—would do that?”
