Prominent anti-vaccine activist and environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday to officially launch his 2024 presidential campaign.
Kennedy Jr. filed to challenge President Biden next year as a Democrat, joining self-help guru Marianne Williamson as the only other declared major candidate in the party in the White House race.
The 69-year-old is the son of former US attorney general, senator, and 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy – who was shot and killed by Sirhan Sirhan on the campaign trail.
He is also the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, who was also assassinated while in office.
Over the years, Kennedy Jr., has emerged as one of the leading opponents of vaccines.
His anti-vaccine efforts only intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of vaccines that offer protection against the virus.
Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine charity run by Kennedy Jr., more than doubled its revenues in 2020 to $6.8 million, according to the Associated Press.
In February 2021, Instagram booted RFK Jr. off its website for spreading false information about the COVID-19 vaccine to his more than 800,000 followers.
He had linked the death of Major League Baseball legend Hank Aaron to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Last year, Kennedy Jr. found himself under even more fire after he told attendees at an anti-vaxx rally at the National Mall in Washington, DC, that it was easier for Anne Frank to hide from Nazis than it is for Americans to escape vaccine mandates.
“Even in Hitler’s Germany you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did,” he said during his speech.
“Today the mechanisms are being put in place to make it so that none of us can run and none of us can hide,” he added.
During the same rally, he also spread conspiracy theories about 5G and digital currencies.
“They’re putting in 5G to harvest our data and control our behavior. Digital currency that will allow them to punish us from a distance and cut off our food supply,” he argued.
The Kennedy family scion revealed last month that he was considering a White House run.
“If it looks like I can raise the money and mobilize enough people to win, I’ll jump in the race,” he wrote in a tweet. “If I run, my top priority will be to end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedoms. Together we can restore America’s democracy.”
Biden, 80, has yet to announce that he will seek re-election in 2024.
With Post wires