For nearly two years, as members of the storied Kennedy family reluctantly went public to warn that their brother and cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was a dangerous man unfit for higher office, the one voice conspicuously missing was that of Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy. The greater Kennedy family has long maintained a code of silence around family matters, whether a tragic death or a darker secret. Speaking out against one of their own would be verboten. As an ambassador to Australia in the Biden administration, Caroline Kennedy avoided speaking her views even privately to the press, declining comment when several of her cousins went on record with Vanity Fair to detail how RFK Jr.’s dark personal history collides with his political aspirations.
But on the brink of RFK Jr.’s possible confirmation to the head of Health and Human Services under Donald Trump’s new administration, Caroline Kennedy has finally gone public in a letter to the Senate nominating committee—plus an accompanying Instagram video–to describe her cousin as a “predator” who, despite overcoming heroin addiction, went on to “misrepresent, lie, and cheat his way through life.” (RFK Jr. did not respond to Vanity Fair, nor did his spokesperson, nor did Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary. An email to RFK Jr.’s personal account elicited an automated response: “Due to the volume of emails, RFK Jr. cannot read or respond to inquiries on this email.”)
Caroline Kennedy’s letter followed strident condemnations from The Wall Street Journal editorial page and The New York Post, both Murdoch publications. Stephen Kennedy Smith, Caroline’s cousin, tells Vanity Fair that Caroline sought his counsel before sending the letter. “This is a McCarthy moment,” he says he told her, “and somebody has got to tell the truth and show some guts.”
The word “predator” called to mind the allegations, first reported in Vanity Fair, from a former babysitter who says Kennedy sexually assaulted her in the late 1990s, when she was 23. Kennedy did not deny the allegations; he later publicly declared he was “not a church boy” and privately texted an apology to Eliza Cooney, the woman who came forward last year.
In early July of 2024, Cooney described to VF how Kennedy groped her in his own kitchen and had at other times seemed to stalk her in the house. “I imagine Ms. Kennedy chose her words carefully and intentionally when she used the word ‘predator,’” Cooney says now. “I experienced that side of him years ago. I fear that if he’s given the opportunity to lead an organization of more than 80,000 employees, other women may, too. I personally wouldn’t trust him with my health care or my daughter.”
She fears, however, that Caroline’s warning “is about six months too late.”
Kennedy’s public redress comes as a number of unlikely allies are making 11th-hour challenges to RFK Jr.’s nomination, including Rupert Murdoch and even Mike Pence—an anti-abortion hard liner who questions Kennedy’s fluctuating views on reproductive freedom.
Caroline Kennedy’s letter, first obtained by the Washington Post, paints a damning portrait of RFK Jr. as a man “addicted to attention and power” and a hypocrite who, despite spreading unfounded conspiracy theories about COVID vaccines, had vaccinated his own children. (RFK Jr. also did not respond to the Washington Post.) Caroline Kennedy recalls harsh memories of Kennedy Jr. dating back to the 1970s. “His basement, his garage, his dorm room were the centers of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence.”
“It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator,” she wrote, concluding, “I urge the Senate to reject his nomination.”
Caroline’s son Jack Schlossberg, a political correspondent for Vogue (which like Vanity Fair is owned by Condé Nast) has been on a months-long social media campaign against Kennedy Jr., making a direct plea to his own family to speak out. And there has long been daylight between the Jack and Bobby lines of the family—as VF reported, Jackie Kennedy Onassis forbade John and Caroline from fraternizing with Bobby and his brothers during their druggy heyday.
But her speaking out is nonetheless momentous within the family. Smith, who has spoken to Caroline about RFK Jr. and shares her point of view, says that “Caroline represents everything that our family should stand for.” She has had, he tells me, “a spotless record of public service. You can go to the dark side or light side on the Kennedy family and Caroline is the real avatar of the legacy. And this is a McCarthy-era moment. And whether it be the left-wing mob or the right-wing mob, people need to have the courage to speak out and tell the truth.”
“My understanding of ‘predatory’ is when you’re using other people for your own self advancement in a way that’s expedient and damaging,” he continues. “He misleads people who are naive and gullible with misinformation and disinformation for his own financial and political benefit. That is predatory.”
The New York Post editorial page (which included no comment from RFK Jr.) said that “[t]he president and his team insist that RFK Jr. has been fitted with a policy straitjacket—that certain areas such as vaccines and objecting to energy strategy are off-limits. But in truth, the only straitjacket suitable for RFK Jr. is a real one.”
The Journal took sharper aim, painting Kennedy as a high-end ambulance chaser, noting that he has collected fees from law firms suing pharmaceutical companies based in part on Kennedy’s attacks on vaccines, including one used to prevent cervical cancer. “He says he merely wants to ensure that vaccines are safe and thoroughly studied—who doesn’t?—and that Americans have access to more information,” the Journal op-ed page said, noting that RFK Jr has tried to “soften” his stance on vaccines since his nomination, and has claimed he won’t take away anyone’s vaccines.” Nevertheless, “In Mr. Kennedy’s case, this means opening the industry to lawsuits by the trial bar.”
Kennedy’s financial disclosures, says the paper, show he “received millions of dollars from referring clients to Wisner Baum and Morgan & Morgan, law firms that have sued vaccine and drug makers. Wisner Baum spearheaded litigation against Merck over its Gardasil vaccine, which protects against the human papillomavirus—one of the biggest risk factors for cervical cancer.” The Journal concluded, “The risk is high that Mr. Kennedy will use his power and pulpit at HHS to enrich his trial-lawyer friends at the expense of public health and medical innovation.”
Caroline Kennedy’s letter echoed the Journal, lamenting that RFK Jr. “is willing to enrich himself by denying access to a vaccine that can prevent all forms of cervical cancer and which has been safely administered to millions of boys and girls.”
While senators in the congressional hearing will almost certainly ask about Kennedy’s views on vaccines and his theories on AIDS—in Real Anthony Fauci, a 2021 book attacking the former health czar, Kennedy questioned the science that HIV causes AIDS—they may choose to also follow the money. Kennedy has claimed he was losing money on his anti-vaccine crusade, telling Tucker Carlson, “I’m getting unpaid for this.” As I reported for Vanity Fair, Kennedy’s salary from his anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense rose exponentially after the COVID pandemic, as he fanned vaccine denialism and attacked the Biden administration: “[M]oney poured into the tax-exempt Children’s Health Defense, doubling revenue in 2020 to $6.8 million, and increasing Kennedy’s annual salary to $510,515 in 2022 from $40,200 in 2016.”
Earlier this year, Kennedy filed an amendment to his financial disclosures to the senate committee, revealing he had significantly underreported his salary from the nonprofit. Kennedy had initially reported that he earned $731,470 in 2022 and 2023 but in fact he made $1.2 million. A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team told The Daily Beast that it was “an oversight in the preparation of the PFD.”
Stephen Smith, Kennedy’s cousin, says these kinds of “oversights” and conflicts of interest will only be magnified if RFK Jr. gains power and influence over the nations’ healthcare. “He is a dangerous man,” he says. “And if he gets on a platform, he’ll become more dangerous. Way more dangerous.”
