Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says that he has "taken precautions" to prevent himself from becoming the victim of an assassination by the CIA.
Kennedy's uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, and his father, 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Sr., were both assassinated. Although conspiracy theories concerning both assassinations have become popular over the decades, no credible evidence has emerged that proves the CIA was responsible in either death.
RFK Jr., who entered the race for the 2024 Democratic nomination this year, suggested during a Thursday interview on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast that his uncle was assassinated by the CIA and the "military industrial complex" for wanting U.S. troops to withdraw from Vietnam.
Host Joe Rogan then asked his guest "what happens" if he wins the 2024 election and gets into office, given that he "believes the intelligence communities" killed the last Kennedy who served as president.
"Well, I've gotta be careful," Kennedy told Rogan. "I'm aware of that [possibility]. You know, I'm aware of that danger and I don't live in fear of it at all. But I'm not stupid about it and I take precautions."
In addition to blaming the U.S. intelligence community for his uncle's death, Kennedy has also suggested that the CIA was behind his father's assassination, although he said that the evidence was "circumstantial" during a WABC radio interview last month.
During the same interview, Kennedy claimed that the evidence of CIA involvement in the assassination of his uncle was "overwhelming" and "beyond a reasonable doubt at this point." Kennedy cited the book JFK and the Unspeakable by James Douglass as "the best distillation" of the evidence.
A review of the book by former Marquette University political science professor John McAdams called it "unspeakably awful" and "utterly uncritical of any theory, any witness, and any factoid, as long as it implies conspiracy."
Newsweek has reached out to the CIA via email for comment.
Prior to launching his long-shot bid for the presidency, Kennedy was perhaps best known for his longtime anti-vaccine activism, which has included the promotion of discredited theories that vaccines cause autism and other ailments.
Kennedy was named to the Center for Countering Digital Hate's "Disinformation Dozen" list in 2021, being one of only 12 people that the organization said were responsible for spreading the bulk of falsehoods about COVID-19 and vaccines online.
While Kennedy is challenging President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary, many of his views have been more in line with recent Republican politics. In addition to his anti-vaccine activism, Kennedy has been highly critical of Biden's border policies and his Russia-Ukraine war stance.
Kennedy has also spoken out against transgender people who he says are "biologically male" from participating in sports and is the author of a 2021 book titled The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the War on Democracy and Public Health.
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About the writer
Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more
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