Is R.F.K., Jr., the First Podcast Presidential Candidate?
Is R.F.K., Jr., the First Podcast Presidential Candidate?
June 19, 2023

Each American President tends to find the broadcast medium that most suits his needs. If F.D.R. was the radio President, J.F.K. was the TV President, and Trump was the Twitter President, could Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—a practitioner of a paranoid, conspiratorial, and only occasionally fact-based brand of politics—be the first podcast candidate? A couple of weeks ago, after doing a town hall with the Sirius XM radio host Michael Smerconish, at a theatre in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Kennedy admitted that the podcast might be his best path forward. The format fits his message—twisted diatribes against vaccines, punctuated with wonky “have you read the study?”-style exhortations.
“The same way my uncle discovered television in 1960 and realized it was going to be a new path to the White House, podcasts are a good media for me, because my weakest media is the short sound bite,” Kennedy, who was relaxing offstage in a blue suit, said. (His wife, Cheryl Hines, who plays Larry David’s wife on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” was taking a break from the campaign because of a recent foot surgery.) “My voice doesn’t work for five or six minutes, until I get my vocal cords to kind of loosen up.” (He has a vocal condition called spasmodic dysphonia.) He was in a good mood, because, after he launched his campaign, Instagram lifted its ban on his account; he’d been suspended for posting medical misinformation. “I do have a chance with podcasts, because I’m able to outrun the censorship juggernaut,” he said.
At the town hall, Kennedy had touched on some of the preoccupations that now double as his campaign issues: the purported (but entirely unproven) link between vaccines and autism, why America is to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the real story behind his uncle’s assassination (C.I.A., in collusion with the Mob), and the possible connection between SSRIs and mass shootings. On other occasions, he has flirted with H.I.V./AIDS denialism, and questioned whether Sirhan Sirhan actually fired the shots that killed his father, R.F.K. (The candidate has said that he forgives Sirhan for the assassination, and also that Sirhan didn’t do it.) Despite the nutball theories, he has been endorsed by such well-known non-experts as Jack Dorsey, Aaron Rodgers, and Alicia Silverstone. One recent Presidential poll shows that he has the highest favorability ratings of anyone in the race, and another that he is the choice of almost a quarter of Democrats, making him Biden’s main challenger in the Party.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, has been an anti-vaxxer for decades, and has blamed vaccines for everything from peanut allergies to A.D.H.D. Like a lot of podcasters, he tends to ramble. After his speech, there was no time left for voters to ask questions.
Perhaps he’d be more obliging backstage? Kennedy retired to a side room and sipped a decaf tea. What was at stake in his campaign? “Everybody realizes they’re not living in a democracy anymore,” he said. “They’ve lost sovereignty of their lives, and their futures, as a result, are hopeless. I think it all flows from a cynicism and despair that flows from this corrupt merger of state-corporate power.”
What about political role models? “On my campaign, I talk about historic insurgencies, including Castro’s,” he said. “He took fifty-three men in a rickety boat and landed from Mexico to Cuba, and most of them were killed. Two years later, he marched into Havana.” He went on, “My campaign is a kind of strong spiritual-based fire.”
Did he have any favorite books he’d read recently? He took a long pause, tapping his foot. He named a few, including “Team of Rivals.”
It was time to go. Kennedy left for his hotel room to do a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk and Tulsi Gabbard. (His next stop was the Mexican border, which he wants to seal; last week, he went on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”) In the lobby of the Norristown theatre, audience members compared notes. His followers include a chunk of the podcast-loving, seed-oil-skeptical, raw-milk-drinking crowd.
Grace O’Callaghan, a medical sales rep, and her sister, Ann Marie Barnett, an account executive at a technology company, had attended to assess whether the candidate appeared cogent in person. “He has a lot of conspiracy theories, so we wanted to dig deeper,” O’Callaghan said.
“I’ve heard him on Russell Brand’s show,” Barnett said. “He’s an independent thinker.”
O’Callaghan went on, “I really admired his dad. I actually wish he were J.F.K., Jr.!” She was puzzled that his popularity was holding strong, “even though he’s been debunked,” she said.
Liz Einecke, a retired teacher who is drawn to Kennedy’s environmental record, said that she was gathering information. “If I vote for him, people will say, ‘Oh, you’re an anti-vaxxer and an environmentalist,’ ” she said.
James Taulbee, an Iraq veteran, wore a vintage “Kennedy for President” (J.F.K.) T-shirt accessorized with heavy turquoise jewelry. He held up a book called “JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters” and said, “There’s a lot of loose ends that I always was curious about that are starting to tie up. Every single thing that the government has so adamantly tried to convince me of has turned out to be a lie.”
Taulbee, who hosts “The Are You Experienced Podcast,” went on, “This is a perfect-case scenario. If I vote for Trump and then Mr. Kennedy becomes President, it’s win-win for me. I’m hopeful now that there’s a lot more guys out there drawing the conclusions I have.” ♦
