RFK Jr. Accused of Exploiting Uncle's Death to Boost Campaign

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent in the 2024 presidential election, received backlash on social media after posting about his uncle's death on the 60th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination.

JFK was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963, while in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. He was assassinated in the third year of his first term as president and was succeeded by his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson.

RFK Jr. is the son of former senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for president in 1968, and the nephew of JFK. He is an environmental lawyer known for being a vaccine skeptic. In early October, RFK Jr. announced that he was dropping his Democratic Party bid for president and instead running as an independent.

On Wednesday, RFK Jr. paid tribute to his late uncle in an opinion piece for Fox News. He posted the article on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: "We can redeem my uncle's vision of our nation as an exemplar of peace, freedom, and service to humankind; his death will not have been in vain. #Kennedy24."

People on social media were quick to question RFK Jr.'s motives for his uncle's death anniversary post.

An X user who goes by Eeyore wrote: "'In vain'? You have stooped to using his image as a campaign poster because you fail on your own merits?" X user WeWillSee wrote: "Wow. The dead uncle card."

Meanwhile, others commemorated RFK Jr.'s efforts and paid respect to the late JFK.

"Rest in peace to your uncle, keep fighting the good fight," an X user who goes by Average Joe Thinks said. X user Elsa Babbitt wrote: "This is a wonderful vision and I hope you work hard to achieve it."

Newsweek reached out to Kennedy's team via email for comment.

In RFK Jr.'s article for Fox News, he said that he wanted to bring back his uncle's "vision of America as a peaceful nation."

RFK Jr. listed his uncle's accomplishments when it came to promoting peace, including the establishment of the Peace Corps in 1961. The Peace Corps is an agency that enlists American volunteers to provide assistance to over 60 countries.

The presidential candidate argued that if the U.S. had put resources toward "education, infrastructure, poverty, health, or the environment," instead of funding the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, "we would be, paradoxically, a stronger and more secure nation."

"If the American people choose me as their president, I will resume the process (that my uncle broached sixty years ago) of unwinding the American military empire," RFK Jr. wrote. "I will return the military to its proper function of defending the homeland."