RFK Jr. admits to leaving dead bear cub in Central Park before New Yorker profile
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a bitcoin conference in Nashville on July 26 Photo: Liam Kennedy/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A New Yorker profile of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out Monday revealed the story behind his decision to leave a dead bear cub in New York City's Central Park a decade ago, which he revealed on X the previous day.
The big picture: The independent presidential candidate has struggled to find footing in a race where he was once viewed as a formidable spoiler in a Trump-Biden rematch.
- Kennedy posted a video Sunday in an attempt to preempt the New Yorker's article, saying he thought leaving the bear would be amusing after a falconry outing in upstate New York.
- "Looking forward to seeing how you spin this one," he wrote in a post Sunday with almost 8 million views.
The fine print: "Kennedy, who was then sixty ... got an idea. He drove to Manhattan and, as darkness fell, entered Central Park with the bear and a bicycle. A person with knowledge of the event said that Kennedy thought it would be funny to make it look as if the animal had been killed by an errant cyclist," wrote The New Yorker's Clare Malone.
- "The next day, the bear was discovered by two women walking their dogs, setting off an investigation by the N.Y.P.D. 'This is a highly unusual situation," a spokeswoman for the Central Park Conservancy told the Times. 'It's awful.' In a follow-up piece for the Times, which was coincidentally written by Tatiana Schlossberg, one of J.F.K.'s granddaughters, a retired Bronx homicide commander commented, 'People are crazy.'"
The intrigue: Kennedy also reportedly sent a text around the Republican National Convention, where he met with former President Trump, critical of him.
- Kennedy in a recent text exchange reportedly called Trump "a terrible human being. The worse president ever and barely human. He is probably a sociopath."
- He also said President Biden was "more dangerous to the Republic and the planet."
- Kennedy was granted Secret Service protection following an assassination attempt against Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania days before the RNC.
State of play: The sprawling profile recounts Kennedy's tragic family history — including the assassination of his father Robert F. Kennedy and uncle John F. Kennedy; his brother David Kennedy's death from a drug overdose; and his second wife Mary Richardson's death by suicide days after Kennedy filed for divorce.
- It details Kennedy's drug addictions and sex life across decades, ascent into the environmentalist and anti-vaccine movements, and two separate arrests over possession of drugs (1983) and political protesting in Puerto Rico (2001).
When he was jailed following the protest in Puerto Rico over U.S. military exercises on the island, he reportedly wrote in his diary:
- "I have to say it. There's no women. I'm happy!"
- "It's not misogyny. It's the opposite! I love them too much."
Flashback: Back in May, a New York Times cited a 2012 deposition where Kennedy said that a doctor had said Kennedy may have had a dead parasite in his brain.
What's next: Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, manager for her father-in-law's campaign, told Malone the independent candidate is focusing not on specific states, but "constituencies, mainly Democrats in reliably Republican states and Republicans in reliably Democratic states."
- Recent polling shows Kennedy's support in the single digits. He was receiving as much as 15% in some polls earlier this year.
