President John F. Conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination have floated on the margins of American politics for decades. Now his nephew Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may replace him at the center of the White House.
US media reports say Kennedy – the vaccine skeptic whom President-elect Donald Trump chose as his health secretary – is pushing to make his daughter-in-law the deputy director of the CIA.
The American news outlet Axios said that part of Kennedy’s motivation for hiring Amaryllis Fox Kennedy was to prove her belief that the intelligence agency had a role in the November 1963 shooting of her uncle in Dallas.
It’s a move that has reportedly angered some US lawmakers – but it also reflects the extraordinary influence that the man named RFK Jr. already has over Trump’s transition team.
Like his views on vaccines, autism, COVID-19 and fluoride in water, Kennedy’s views on assassination are far from mainstream.
In a radio interview in 2023, RFK Jr. said that there was “overwhelming evidence of CIA involvement” in the JFK assassination, adding that “at this point it is beyond a reasonable doubt.”
This contrasts with the findings of the Warren Commission that investigated the shooting, which found that it was carried out alone by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine sharpshooter.
Kennedy said in the same interview that there was “very solid” but “circumstantial” evidence that the agency was under investigation in 1968 by his own father, Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, who was killed while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president.
Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant who was captured immediately at the shooting scene, was convicted of murder and remains in prison.
‘Big discussion’
But belief in conspiracy theories has never been an obstacle to working with Trump, the great disruptor of American politics.
Indeed, in the case of RFK Jr., Trump appears to have embraced it.
The former environmental lawyer made her own White House run as an independent earlier this year before throwing her support behind Trump.
Trump rewarded him by nominating him to his dream job as Secretary of Health and Human Services — though Kennedy faces potentially tough confirmation hearings.
Since then, Kennedy has become one of Trump’s key courtiers.
After the November 5 election, he was photographed eating McDonald’s food on Trump’s plane with tech tycoon Elon Musk and Trump’s son Don Jr. – despite Kennedy’s own campaign against junk food.
RFK Jr. was at Trump’s side again on Thursday, when the president-elect rang the New York Stock Exchange bell to celebrate being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for the second time.
Asked by Time what he would do if RFK Jr. moved to end childhood vaccination programs in the United States, Trump said he would have a “big discussion” with Kennedy.
The New York Times reported on Friday that a lawyer who helped Kennedy select officials for the Trump administration had previously petitioned US regulators to revoke approval of a polio vaccine that scientists say could cost millions of lives. More than 100,000 lives have been saved and perhaps 20 million cases of childhood paralysis have been prevented. ,
‘Stopped at all costs’
With Trump now reportedly considering Amaryllis Fox Kennedy for the CIA job, it looks like Kennedy’s other left-field principles may also gain prominence.
Trump himself has promised to release the last of the previously classified files on the Kennedy assassination that are housed in the US National Archives.
The appointment of Fox Kennedy – who is married to RFK Jr.’s son and served as her father-in-law’s campaign manager – would be controversial for other reasons as well.
In 2019 she published a memoir about her time in the CIA but reportedly did not seek advance approval from the government.
Fox Kennedy hit back at reports that some lawmakers and former intelligence officials were opposed to giving him the role.
“A Kennedy in the CIA, they’re upset,” she wrote on X. “A DJT (Donald J. Trump) loyalist in Langley, they moan. He must be stopped at all costs!”
For America’s most famous – and tragic – political dynasty, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has become a black sheep.
JFK’s only grandson, Jack Schlossberg, accused RFK Jr. of being “obviously a Russian spy” on social media platforms this week following reports about his daughter-in-law.
Kennedy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
