Politics

/

ArcaMax

Robin Abcarian: Even Trump and JD Vance can't match the unbearable weirdness of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times on

Published in Op Eds

It took a decade, but the man who left a dead bear cub in Central Park finally fessed up in a social media post Sunday.

Why now? Because he wanted to get ahead of a New Yorker profile that included the bear story. The magazine also obtained a photograph of the culprit posing with his fingers in the little creature’s bloody mouth, pretending it was biting him.

“Maybe that’s where I got my brain worm,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joked to New Yorker writer Clare Malone.

Listen, I get that Democrats are having a lot of fun calling former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, weird — an insult popularized by the entirely-not-weird Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who became Kamala Harris’ running mate Tuesday.

But I’m not sure Trump and Vance can top Kennedy, the independent presidential candidate who is the very embodiment of Hunter S. Thompson’s famous aphorism, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

“Weird” barely begins to describe Kennedy, a dangerous demagogue who shamelessly trades on his family name, associates with far-right figures while masquerading as a liberal and lies to Americans about vaccines.

No wonder his family has disavowed him. Jack Schlossberg, John F. Kennedy’s grandson, said on Instagram last month that his cousin’s candidacy is “an embarrassment.”

“He’s trading in on Camelot, celebrity, conspiracy theories and conflict for personal gain and fame,” said Schlossberg, a Vogue politics writer. “I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president. … Let’s not be distracted, again, by someone’s vanity project.”

Kennedy seems to make news only when he’s done something, well, weird.

The New York Times reported in May that Kennedy said doctors had found a dead parasitic worm in his brain in 2010, when he was experiencing brain fog and memory loss. He had originally disclosed that information in a deposition taken while he was seeking his second divorce, from Mary Richardson Kennedy. He testified that a worm “got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” which was relevant to the divorce proceedings because he claimed his earning power had been diminished by the parasite.

Around the same time, the Times reported, Kennedy also suffered from mercury poisoning, which can affect cognition, and atrial fibrillation, which he described in the divorce deposition as making him feel as if “there’s a bag of worms in my chest.”

Another recent report noted that Kennedy posed with the barbecued remains of what he eventually claimed was a goat during a 2010 trip to South America, though some veterinarians said the animal appeared to be a dog.

 

But when you’re generating news leads like “ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been forced to deny that he took a bite out of a dog carcass,” how much do the details really matter?

The New York Times published a puffy story in June about two wild ravens that Kennedy had sort of tamed at his Los Angeles home. The newspaper reported that the birds had succeeded his pet emu, Toby, who regularly attacked his wife, the actor Cheryl Hines, and was later killed by a mountain lion.

Totally not weird, amirite?

But back to the bear. In the video Kennedy posted, he is telling the story to Roseanne Barr, who received about 70,000 votes when she ran for president on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket in 2012. It’s unclear why Barr was in the video, but my theory is that it was a meeting of the Weird Presidential Candidates Club.

As Barr listens, Kennedy recounts the tale: On his way to a falconing outing in upstate New York, he saw a van hit the bear cub. He scooped up the carcass, intending to skin it and put the meat in his refrigerator later. But he was late for dinner at Peter Luger Steak House in New York City, so he didn’t have time to stop at his home in Westchester County. Then dinner ran late, and he needed to get to the airport, so he hatched a plan: “I said, ‘Let’s go put the bear in Central Park and we’ll make it look like it got hit by a bike. It would be funny for people,’” Kennedy said. He also explained, “I wasn’t drinking, of course, but people were drinking with me who thought this was a good idea.”

Harvesting roadkill and dumping it in Central Park as a prank, he said, might have been “a little bit of the redneck in me.” Kennedy is a redneck the way Donald Trump Jr. is a blue-collar everyman. No, this was the behavior of a ragingly entitled scion of a rich and famous American clan.

In any case, many headlines were generated when the inexplicable bear was discovered in the park the next day, including in this newspaper. The New York Times assigned a young environmental reporter named Tatiana Schlossberg to the story: Yes, another Kennedy unknowingly chronicled her cousin’s misadventure:

“Calls were made to a retired Bronx homicide commander, Vernon Gerberth,” Schlossberg wrote. “ ‘It wouldn’t be a police matter,’ he said, ‘unless the bear was killed by a person, or if somebody was keeping it as a pet and brought it to the park. People are crazy.’ ”

And, of course, weird.

_____


©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

 

Related Channels

ACLU

ACLU

By The ACLU
Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman

By Amy Goodman
Armstrong Williams

Armstrong Williams

By Armstrong Williams
Austin Bay

Austin Bay

By Austin Bay
Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro

By Ben Shapiro
Betsy McCaughey

Betsy McCaughey

By Betsy McCaughey
Bill Press

Bill Press

By Bill Press
Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

By Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas

By Cal Thomas
Christine Flowers

Christine Flowers

By Christine Flowers
Clarence Page

Clarence Page

By Clarence Page
Danny Tyree

Danny Tyree

By Danny Tyree
David Harsanyi

David Harsanyi

By David Harsanyi
Debra Saunders

Debra Saunders

By Debra Saunders
Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager

By Dennis Prager
Dick Polman

Dick Polman

By Dick Polman
Erick Erickson

Erick Erickson

By Erick Erickson
Froma Harrop

Froma Harrop

By Froma Harrop
Jacob Sullum

Jacob Sullum

By Jacob Sullum
Jamie Stiehm

Jamie Stiehm

By Jamie Stiehm
Jeff Robbins

Jeff Robbins

By Jeff Robbins
Jessica Johnson

Jessica Johnson

By Jessica Johnson
Jim Hightower

Jim Hightower

By Jim Hightower
Joe Conason

Joe Conason

By Joe Conason
Joe Guzzardi

Joe Guzzardi

By Joe Guzzardi
John Micek

John Micek

By John Micek
John Stossel

John Stossel

By John Stossel
Josh Hammer

Josh Hammer

By Josh Hammer
Judge Andrew Napolitano

Judge Andrew Napolitano

By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
Laura Hollis

Laura Hollis

By Laura Hollis
Marc Munroe Dion

Marc Munroe Dion

By Marc Munroe Dion
Michael Barone

Michael Barone

By Michael Barone
Michael Reagan

Michael Reagan

By Michael Reagan
Mona Charen

Mona Charen

By Mona Charen
Oliver North and David L. Goetsch

Oliver North and David L. Goetsch

By Oliver North and David L. Goetsch
R. Emmett Tyrrell

R. Emmett Tyrrell

By R. Emmett Tyrrell
Rachel Marsden

Rachel Marsden

By Rachel Marsden
Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry

By Rich Lowry
Robert B. Reich

Robert B. Reich

By Robert B. Reich
Ruben Navarrett Jr

Ruben Navarrett Jr

By Ruben Navarrett Jr.
Ruth Marcus

Ruth Marcus

By Ruth Marcus
S.E. Cupp

S.E. Cupp

By S.E. Cupp
Salena Zito

Salena Zito

By Salena Zito
Star Parker

Star Parker

By Star Parker
Stephen Moore

Stephen Moore

By Stephen Moore
Susan Estrich

Susan Estrich

By Susan Estrich
Ted Rall

Ted Rall

By Ted Rall
Terence P. Jeffrey

Terence P. Jeffrey

By Terence P. Jeffrey
Tim Graham

Tim Graham

By Tim Graham
Tom Purcell

Tom Purcell

By Tom Purcell
Veronique de Rugy

Veronique de Rugy

By Veronique de Rugy
Victor Joecks

Victor Joecks

By Victor Joecks
Wayne Allyn Root

Wayne Allyn Root

By Wayne Allyn Root

Comics

Dick Wright Tim Campbell Darrin Bell Jeff Danziger Bob Gorrell Mike Smith