RFK Jr.’s Nephew Joe Kennedy III Tells Uncle He Needs to Resign as Health Secretary

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nephew is calling for his resignation following a Senate Finance Committee hearing.

In a post shared to X on Friday, Sept. 5, Joe Kennedy III spoke out against the 71-year-old politician, who currently serves as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The 44-year-old former U.S. representative accused his uncle of being “a threat to the health and wellbeing of every American,” saying “protecting the public health of our country and its people” is RFK Jr.’s duty.

“At yesterday’s hearing, he chose to do the opposite: to dismiss science, mislead the public, sideline experts and sow confusion,” Kennedy III wrote in a statement shared to his account. 

His post came just one day after Kennedy Jr. blasted the CDC and defended his decision to fire the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which provides guidance on the use of vaccines, PBS reported, among other Senate hearing highlights.

“None of us will be spared the pain he is inflicting. It doesn’t matter how rich or powerful you are or what state you live in — the heartbreak of watching a loved one fall ill knows no borders,” Kennedy III, who served in the House from 2013 to 2021, warned.

“The challenges before us-from disease outbreaks to mental health crises-demand moral clarity, scientific expertise, and leadership rooted in fact,” he continued. 

The former Massachusetts congressman ended his post with a call to action: “Those values are not present in the Secretary’s office. He must resign.”

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Kennedy III is not the first in his family to speak out against RFK Jr.

In an August statement to New York magazine, his cousin, Caroline Kennedy, said that their famous family isn’t the American dynasty the U.S. once knew. 

“Just to state the obvious though it seems often underweighted these days — there are now more than 100 adults in our family so it’s pretty different than in the past,” she told the magazine.

She also previously said he “continues to grandstand” off of the tragic Kennedy assassinations in the 1960s and takes advantage of his family’s famous name.

His mother, the late Ethel Kennedy, also reportedly weighed in.

New York magazine also reported that when RFK Jr. announced his plans to run for president in 2023, one of Ethel’s first phone calls was to his opponent in the race, then-President Joe Biden, to apologize.

“I love my brother Bobby, but I do not share or endorse his opinions on many issues, including the COVID pandemic, vaccinations, and the role of social media platforms in policing false information,” RFK Jr.’s sister Kerry Kennedy said in a 2023 statement.