Whereas RFK Jr. emphasised that his marketing campaign did not produce the Tremendous Bowl industrial, he nonetheless had the advert pinned to the highest of his X profile Monday morning.
WASHINGTON — 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 examine the unbiased candidate to his assassinated uncle, President John F. Kennedy.
The 30-second spot, financed by the American Values 2024 Tremendous PAC that’s backing Kennedy, featured a shortened model of a marketing campaign music that the thirty fifth president utilized in his 1960 marketing campaign. The spot additionally mimicked cartoon and newsreel results utilizing black-and-white footage of Robert Kennedy Jr. much like JFK. However in a notable departure from the Kennedy’s bygone Democratic Get together dynasty, the advert urged Individuals to “Vote Unbiased.”
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 value an estimated $7 million.
“I’m so sorry if the Tremendous Bowl commercial brought about anybody in my household ache,” Kennedy wrote late Sunday night time on X, previously Twitter. “The advert was created and aired by the American Values Tremendous PAC with none involvement or approval from my marketing campaign. … I like you all. God.”
Nonetheless, as of Monday morning, Kennedy had the advert pinned to the highest of his X profile. “Our momentum is rising,” he wrote. “It’s time for an Unbiased President to heal the divide in our nation.”
Bobby Shriver, whose mom, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, based the Particular Olympics, hammered his cousin over the spot and his opposition to vaccines for COVID-19 and different ailments.
“My cousin’s Tremendous Bowl advert used our uncle’s faces- and my Mom’s,” Shriver wrote. “She could be appalled by his lethal well being care views. Respect for science, vaccines, & well being care fairness have been 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 commercial brought about you ache. … I ship you and your loved ones my sincerest apologies. God bless you.”
Kennedy is running for president as an unbiased regardless of his household’s standing as Democratic Get together the Aristocracy. It’s not but clear whether or not he can achieve poll entry in sufficient states to mount a real nationwide marketing campaign. However his effort is available in a yr when many citizens usually are not enthusiastic in regards to the chance 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 may form the end result in unpredictable methods.
“It’s becoming that the primary nationwide advert selling Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy was purchased and paid for by Donald Trump’s largest donor this cycle,” stated Democratic Nationwide Committee spokesman Alex Floyd. He was referring to Tim Mellon, a serious donor to Trump who additionally gave American Values $15 million final yr, in keeping with federal filings.
The DNC already had filed a federal complaint alleging that Kennedy’s marketing campaign is illegally coordinating with American Values to siphon assist from Biden, an accusation the PAC denies.
A Biden marketing campaign spokesman sidestepped the flap, as a substitute highlighting the president’s Tremendous 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 stunned and grateful” for the advert, a special 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 relations who would converse at Democratic Get together conventions and occasions. He has in recent times delved into conspiracy theories and grow to be a face of the anti-vaccine movement.
Apart from his presidential uncle, who was assassinated in 1963, Kennedy’s political lineage contains his father, who was U.S. legal professional normal, 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.
