Environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to
run for president in 2024 as a Democrat.
The 69-year-old is the son of then-New York Senator, US Attorney General and presidential candidate assassinated in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, and the
nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy Jr. is a longtime vaccine skeptic.
He has promoted discredited claims linking vaccines and autism and founded the anti-vaccine organization Children's Health Defense.
He also criticized the coronavirus vaccine and the federal government's handling of the pandemic.
In 2019, three members of his family, his sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, his brother Joseph P. Kennedy II, and his niece Maeve Kennedy McKean, strongly denounced his anti-vaccine views in a Politico op-ed, arguing that he was
"part of a disinformation campaign that is having heartbreaking and deadly consequences."
As an environmental lawyer, Kennedy worked with a group that led the Hudson River cleanup.
He also worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council and co-founded an environmental law firm.
If he goes ahead with his presidential bid, Kennedy would be the last in a long line of family members to enter politics.
The 2024 Democratic presidential race is only beginning to take shape, with President Joe Biden expected to announce his run for a second term.
(ANSA)