By BILL BARROW (Associated Press)
Robert Kennedy Jr.’s presidential ambitions resulted in public household drama after a political motion committee aired a Super Bowl advert invoking the Democratic household’s legacy to implicitly evaluate the unbiased candidate to his assassinated uncle, President John F. Kennedy.
The 30-second spot, financed by the American Values 2024 Super PAC that’s backing Kennedy, featured a shortened model of a marketing campaign track that the thirty fifth president utilized in his 1960 marketing campaign. The spot additionally mimicked cartoon and newsreel results utilizing black-and-white photos of Robert Kennedy Jr. just like JFK. But in a notable departure from the Kennedy’s bygone Democratic Party dynasty, the advert urged Americans to “Vote Independent.”
After the sport, Kennedy responded to on-line criticism, together with from one in all his cousins, emphasizing that his marketing campaign didn’t produce the spot, which price an estimated $7 million.
“I’m so sorry if the Super Bowl advertisement caused anyone in my family pain,” Kennedy wrote late Sunday evening on X, previously Twitter. “The ad was created and aired by the American Values Super PAC without any involvement or approval from my campaign. … I love you all. God bless you.”
Still, as of Monday morning, Kennedy had the advert pinned to the highest of his X profile. “Our momentum is growing,” he wrote. “It’s time for an Independent President to heal the divide in our country.”
Bobby Shriver, whose mom, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, based the Special Olympics, hammered his cousin over the spot and his opposition to vaccines for COVID-19 and different ailments.
“My cousin’s Super Bowl ad used our uncle’s faces- and my Mother’s,” Shriver wrote. “She would be appalled by his deadly health care views. Respect for science, vaccines, & health care equity were in her DNA.”
Shriver, whose father, Sargent Shriver, based the Peace Corps, additionally alluded to his personal work in increasing well being care entry within the creating world.
Robert Kennedy Jr. responded individually to his cousin: “Bobby. I’m so sorry if that advertisement caused you pain. … I send you and your family my sincerest apologies. God bless you.”
Kennedy is working for president as an unbiased regardless of his household’s standing as Democratic Party the Aristocracy. It’s not but clear whether or not he can acquire poll entry in sufficient states to mount a real nationwide marketing campaign. But his effort is available in a 12 months when many citizens should not enthusiastic in regards to the probability of a rematch between President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and former President Donald Trump, a Republican. Any unbiased or third-party efforts in battleground states might form the end result in unpredictable methods.
“It is fitting that the first national ad promoting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy was bought and paid for by Donald Trump’s largest donor this cycle,” stated Democratic National Committee spokesman Alex Floyd. He was referring to Tim Mellon, a significant donor to Trump who additionally gave American Values $15 million final 12 months, based on federal filings.
The DNC already had filed a federal grievance alleging that Kennedy’s marketing campaign is illegally coordinating with American Values to siphon help from Biden, an accusation the PAC denies.
A Biden marketing campaign spokesman sidestepped the flap, as a substitute highlighting the president’s Super Bowl Sunday debut on the social media platform TikTok.
An e-mail publication from American Values framed the advert as an unqualified success, noting a spike in on-line searches for Kennedy and an announcement from his marketing campaign spokeswoman saying the marketing campaign was “pleasantly surprised and grateful” for the advert, a distinct tone than Kennedy’s statements to his household.
At one time, Kennedy was a number one environmental activist, and he was among the many youthful Kennedy members of the family who would converse at Democratic Party conventions and occasions. He has lately delved into conspiracy theories and develop into a face of the anti-vaccine motion.
Besides his presidential uncle, who was assassinated in 1963, Kennedy’s political lineage consists of his father, who was U.S. lawyer common, a senator from New York and main presidential candidate on the time of his 1968 assassination. His father’s longest-lived brother was Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. Sargent Shriver, Bobby Shriver’s father, ran for president in 1976 as a Democrat.
An anti-vaccine group Kennedy led has a lawsuit pending in opposition to quite a lot of information organizations, amongst them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust legal guidelines by taking motion to establish misinformation, together with about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took go away from the group when he introduced his run for president however is listed as one in all its attorneys within the lawsuit.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”