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“ ‘You may have seen some news yesterday about my family.’ ”
Former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy threw cold water Thursday on his cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s longshot presidential bid, as the ex-congressman referred to “debunked claims that are out there about vaccines.”
“You may have seen some news yesterday about my family,” said Patrick Kennedy, as he gave a short speech to attendees at a conference in Washington, D.C., run by Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group he co-founded that opposes cannabis legalization.
See: Smart Approaches to Marijuana is trying to ‘take back 4/20’
Wednesday was when anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. held a kickoff event in Boston for his presidential campaign.
Patrick Kennedy added that the Kennedy family has focused on “tackling intellectual and developmental disabilities,” noting that an arm of the National Institutes of Health that targets children’s health and human development is named after his aunt, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
“There is no greater cause for intellectual-developmental disabilities than both fetal alcohol syndrome and exposure in the womb to drugs in this country — far exceeding all the debunked claims that are out there about vaccines,” said the former Democratic congressman, who represented a district in Rhode Island from 1995 to 2011.
“I only wish we spent half the time arguing about the corruption in government and corporate America that is represented by the power of the marijuana industry as we do the power of the vaccine industry,” he added.
Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, brought up his dad as he criticized the widespread support within his party for cannabis interests
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“My father was the leading opponent of the tobacco industry, with people like Henry Waxman,” he said. “Democrats used to be on the side of public health in taking on the corporate greed of Big Tobacco. I want to say today, unfortunately, it’s become an article of faith of the Democrats to be for commercialization of marijuana, and that saddens me.”
As the 2024 White House race gets going, Democrats largely have closed ranks behind President Joe Biden, but the incumbent is facing primary challenges from RFK Jr. and author Marianne Williamson. Many Kennedys want nothing to do with their family black sheep’s all-but-doomed presidential bid, a Politico report said.
Also: As Biden says he’s ‘planning on running,’ here are the potential 2024 Republican candidates
