Caroline Kennedy warns senators that her cousin RFK Jr is a 'predator'

In a letter to the U.S. Senate, Caroline Kennedy called her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a "predator" who is consumed by power, and urged the Senate to reject President Donald Trump's nomination of him as Secretary of Health. Caroline Kennedy, a former U.S. ambassador to Australia and Japan and daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, harshly criticized her cousin in the letter, the latest denunciation he's received from members of his own famous Democratic family.

Previously, several family members also publicly condemned her cousin's presidential campaign last year. The letter was obtained by the Associated Press and first reported by The Washington Post. In the letter, Caroline Kennedy said her cousin's views on vaccines were unacceptable, and provided some personal details of their upbringing together that she found even more concerning. She described her cousin's basement, garage and dorm room as a hub for drug use, where he would also put chickens and mice in blenders to feed his hawks. "It was often an aberrant scene filled with despair and violence," she wrote.

Caroline Kennedy also read the letter in a video and shared it on social media. Journalists attempted to contact Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for comment but were not immediately successful. He has spoken publicly about his past heroin use and pleaded guilty in 1984 to carrying heroin on a plane. Caroline Kennedy told senators that her cousin is now “exploiting the desperation of parents with sick children,” and noted that he had vaccinated his own children but discourages others from doing so.

She also pointed out that Kennedy plans to continue profiting from a lawsuit against pharmaceutical company Merck over Gardasil, a human papillomavirus vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. He received over $850,000 (A$1.4 million) from this arrangement last year. “In other words, he is willing to get rich by denying access to a vaccine that prevents virtually all forms of cervical cancer and has been safely administered to millions of boys and girls,” she wrote. She had not previously spoken out about his campaign or nomination as Secretary of Health.

Caroline Kennedy's father was assassinated in 1963 when she was a young girl. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated during his presidential campaign in 1968. “Unlike Bobby, I try not to speak for my father — but I’m sure that he, and my uncle Bobby, who gave their lives to public service, and my uncle Teddy, who dedicated his Senate career to improving healthcare, would be appalled,” Kennedy wrote. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is scheduled to appear overnight before the Senate Finance Committee for a hearing on his nomination as Trump's Secretary of Health. Another hearing on his nomination will be held on Wednesday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which was once chaired by his uncle Ted Kennedy.