When members of the Kennedy family joined President Biden in Philadelphia to endorse his re-election — and denounce the presidential candidacy of the best-known Kennedy of this generation, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — one person stepped forward to make the family’s case: his younger sister Kerry.
“Nearly every single grandchild of Joe and Rose Kennedy supports Joe Biden,” Ms. Kennedy said as her siblings, and Mr. Biden, flanked her onstage.
“That’s right: The Kennedy family endorses Joe Biden for president.”That was not the first time that Ms. Kennedy, the seventh child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, had been the face of the family’s pushback against her brother.
As Mr. Kennedy has emerged as a skeptic of Covid-19 vaccines and a purveyor of conspiratorial theories on the assassination of his father, it has fallen to Ms. Kennedy to distance her family from the brother she has long held close and to guard the legacy of a proud and private family as it fades from the political stage.
It is political as well: She argues that her brother’s insurgent campaign threatens the re-election of Mr. Biden and is aware that her family could shoulder some of the blame should Donald J. Trump return to the White House next year.
Persons:
Kennedy, Biden, —, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, Kerry, “, Joe, Rose Kennedy, Joe Biden, ” Ms, Robert, Ethel Kennedy, Kennedy’s, Mr, Donald J, Trump, White
Locations:
Philadelphia, Hickory Hill, Va, —