RFK Jr. dabbles in truth, plays on fear
Robert F Kennedy Jr speaks during a rally at Villa Lombardi in Holbrook supporting his candidacy for president, Sunday, April 28, 2024. Credit: Jeff Bachner
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came to Long Island Sunday to boost his presidential campaign, he told the crowd he was one of them.
“In 1964, when my father ran for United States Senate, he bought a house in Glen Cove,” Kennedy began. “So, we spent a couple of summers out here on Long Island.”
Well . . . not quite.
Then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy didn’t buy a house on Long Island; he already had one in McLean, Va. The Kennedy family began a two-year lease in Glen Cove in August 1964, just days after he announced his bid to represent a state where he had never lived. By June 1965, Newsday reported that the newly-minted senator and his family were moving out of the Glen Cove estate.
But there was just enough in Kennedy Jr.’s anecdote to invigorate the Long Island crowd.
Kennedy, 70, continued, with memories of his work with the Long Island Soundkeeper Fund, an environmental protection organization, and talk of the Sound’s once-plentiful lobsters and oysters.
“I want to see the return of those days on the Long Island Sound,” Kennedy said.
The introduction illustrated the allure of the independent candidate, who’s trying to get on the ballot in all 50 states. He has the right look, the right words, just enough truth to make people believe him, and just enough mentions of his father and uncle to invoke a wistfulness for the past. He builds his case, brick by hollow brick, with storytelling, promise-making and fearmongering.
His most potent message to voters might be that he’s a superior option to either President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump. But what many Long Islanders like and know best about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is his opposition to vaccines and vaccine requirements.
On Sunday, Kennedy discussed what he called the “chronic disease epidemic,” critiqued COVID-19 pandemic-related policies, and emphasized an increase in autism diagnoses nationwide. He barely mentioned vaccination. He didn’t have to. His audience understood the familiar code words and made the connections he wanted them to make.
The speech, like so much of Kennedy’s campaign, was full of contradictions and fakery. He promised knowledge, while offering falsehoods. He spoke of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president, and the 1968 presidential campaign of his father, even as most of the well-known clan aren’t supporting him.
He emphasized that he was running a campaign of “hope” while simultaneously playing to Long Islanders’ fears, as when he talked about artificial intelligence. “How many of you are scared about what AI might do to our country?” he asked.
“It has a tremendous promise . . . but it also has a peril to enslave us, to alter our reality, to allow the intelligence agencies, the corporations, to manipulate us by activating these . . . charges in our brain,” Kennedy said. “We need to embrace it, but we need to make sure it’s not going to kill us.”
During the rally, Kennedy signed his own ballot petition, noting he was a registered New York voter.
“I’m very, very happy to be home,” Kennedy said.
That, too, isn’t fully true. Yes, he’s registered to vote in New York. But his primary home is in California.
That didn’t matter to the hundreds of Long Islanders at a catering hall in Holbrook. And it may not matter to millions of voters who hear what they want to hear and vote for the promise of a Kennedy — even if none of it is real.
That’s the real fear.
COLUMNIST RANDI F. MARSHALL’S opinions are her own.
Randi Marshall is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
