Lara Trump responded to Caroline Kennedy’s recent attack on her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling the comments, “part of that political game.”
Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, posted a video reading a scathing letter to senators about her family member, in which she called Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) a “predator” who is distorting his father’s legacy to “advance his own failed presidential campaign.”
Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, told NewsNation’s “CUOMO” that she believes the letter is just “sour grapes” from a family of longtime Democrats.
“There is no doubt that the reason Caroline Kennedy came out with this video in the time frame that she did was because she was probably encouraged by the Democrats to do it,” she said.
The comments come ahead of Kennedy’s appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this week, part of the path to confirmation.
Trump told NewsNation she doesn’t think Caroline Kennedy’s comments will change his confirmation chances.
“I think that everybody should watch the confirmation hearing, listen to the answers that he delivers, and take them at face value … So, I don’t think it will be any different,” she said.
Caroline Kennedy calls RFK Jr. a ‘predator’
In a video posted to social platform X, Kennedy said that her cousin “lacks any relevant government, financial, management or medical experience” to qualify him to lead the nation’s health agencies — but added that his “personal qualities” pose “even greater concern.”
“I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together. It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator,” she wrote in a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Finance and HELP committees.
“I watched his younger brothers and cousins follow him down the path of drug addiction,” she continued. “His basement, his garage, and his dorm room were the centers where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse sense of despair and violence.”
She added that she hadn’t previously denounced his nomination because she had been U.S. ambassador to Australia and was also reluctant to publicly criticize a family member.
NewsNation partner The Hill contributed to this report. Both outlets are owned by Nexstar Media Group.
