Caroline Kennedy wrote a blistering letter to the U.S. Senate Tuesday urging them to reject her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination as Health and Human Services secretary.
He is set to appear before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday for the first of two confirmation hearings as President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. If confirmed, he would have sweeping control over agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The hearings are expected to be contentious due to Kennedy’s controversial views, including his repeated false claims linking vaccines to autism — a theory debunked by decades of scientific research.
Jack Schlossberg, Caroline Kennedy's son, shared a video of his mother reading the letter she sent to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on X on Tuesday afternoon. In it, she calls her cousin a "predator" who is "addicted to attention and power," and has used his considerable charisma "to lie and cheat his way through life."
Watch the full video below:
Ambassador Caroline Kennedy’s statement to the US Senate on RFKJr’s nomination for HHS Secretary
— Jack Schlossberg (@JBKSchlossberg) January 28, 2025
This is a reading of a letter she just sent to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
I’m so proud of my courageous mother, who’s lived a life of dignity,… pic.twitter.com/feysNA0Wwp
"Dear Senators, throughout the past year, people have asked for my thoughts about my cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his presidential campaign. I did not comment, not only because I was serving in a government position as United States ambassador to Australia, but because I have never wanted to speak publicly about my family members and their challenges," she said in the video. "We are a close generation of 28 cousins who have been through a lot together. We know how hard it's been and we are always there for each other. But now that Bobby has been nominated by President Trump to be secretary of Health and Human Services, a position that would put him in charge of the health of the American people, I feel an obiligation to speak out."
She said overseeing the FDA, the NIH, the CDC and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- agencies charged with protecting the most vulnerable among us -- "is an enormous responsibility and one that Bobby is unqualified to fill. He lacks any relevant government, financial, management or medical experience, his views on vaccines are dangerous and willfully misinformed."
"These facts alone should be disqualifying," she added. "But he has personal qualities related to this job which for me pose an even greater concern."
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Caroline Kennedy said it wasn't easy for her to speak out, but it also wasn't easy for her to stay silent last year when her cousin traded on her father's image "and distorted President Kennedy's legacy to advance his own failed presidential campaign and then groveled to Donald Trump for a job."
"Bobby's continued to grandstand off my father's assassination and that of his own father," she said. "It's incomprehensible to me that someone who is willing to exploit their own painful family tragedies for publicity would be put in charge of America's life and death situations."
"Unlike Bobby, I try not to speak for my father, but I am certain that he and my Uncle Bobby -- who gave their lives in public service to our country -- and my Uncle Teddy -- who devoted his long Senate career to the cause of improving healthcare -- would be disgusted."
She said the American health care system -- for all its flaws -- remains the envy of the world.
"Its doctors and nurses, researchers, scientists and caregivers are the most dedicated people I know. Every day they give their lives to heal and save others. They deserve a knowledgeable leader who is committed to evidence and excellence. They deserve a secretary committed to advancing cutting edge medicine to save lives, not to rejecting the advances we have already made. They deserve a stable, moral and ethical person at the helm of this crucial agency. They deserve better than Bobby Kennedy, and so do the rest of us. I urge the Senate to reject his nomination."
Sen. Ed. Markey, D-Mass., told NBC10 Boston that his colleagues should heed Caroline Kennedy's letter.
"She has made clear that her own family does not support Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," Markey said, adding, "he's unqualified for that job."
Markey referred to Kennedy's recent time advocating against the measles vaccine in Samoa, which NBC News has reported on, during which time 83 people died, mostly children.