Growing up in a proud Irish Catholic middle-class family, Joe Biden\u2019s family idolized the Kennedys. They saw the Kennedys \u2014 successful, wealthy, attractive Irish Catholics \u2014 as the embodiment of the American Dream. Biden says Robert F. Kennedy Sr., whose bust sits in the Oval Office, inspired him to become a public defender and ultimately run for office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Kennedys were, as a group, the people he patterned his life after,\u201d said former senator Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), who was Biden\u2019s longtime chief of staff and remains his close friend. \u201cNot just his political life, but his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
So when the Kennedy family rallied behind Biden last week in Philadelphia with a full-throated endorsement of his reelection campaign, pointedly choosing him over one of their own \u2014 Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent \u2014 it was not just politically helpful. It was a hugely personal victory for Biden, too.<\/p>\n
Privately, Biden told aides that Thursday was one of the best days of his campaign, according to people familiar with his comments who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The event included more than a dozen members of the extended Kennedy family, including six of Kennedy Jr.\u2019s siblings, and Biden was particularly moved when they said the president was the candidate carrying on their family\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
Publicly, Biden was visibly touched by the fulsome endorsement by Kerry Kennedy, his rival\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the most meaningful introduction I\u2019ve ever gotten in my life, other than when my sister introduced me,\u201d Biden said Thursday after her introduction.<\/p>\n
The Kennedy family hopes their endorsement will help Biden politically. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s independent presidential campaign threatens to siphon votes from Biden, increasingly worrying Democrats that he could meaningfully hurt the president\u2019s chances of defeating Donald Trump. The outcome could hinge on a few thousand votes in key states, and many Democrats say they lost the White House in 2000 and 2016 due to such third-party insurgencies.<\/p>\n
Inside the Kennedy family, Kennedy Jr.\u2019s quixotic campaign has been painful, people familiar with their discussions said. Initially, when he was challenging Biden for the Democratic nomination, his family was frustrated \u2014 and made clear that they stood with Biden \u2014 but largely ignored the candidacy publicly. They were unconcerned about Kennedy Jr.\u2019s impact on the election, since Biden was almost certain to defeat him the Democratic nomination.<\/p>\n
But as an independent candidate who is winning ballot access around the country, members of the family have grown increasingly concerned about his ability to influence the election \u2014 and damage their family\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cNearly every single grandchild of Joe and Rose Kennedy supports Joe Biden,\u201d Kerry Kennedy said in her introduction of Biden. \u201cThat\u2019s right, the Kennedy family endorses Joe Biden for president.\u201d<\/p>\n
She later directly compared Biden to her father, the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.).<\/p>\n
\u201cDaddy stood for equal justice, for human rights and freedom from want and fear,\u201d she said, \u201cjust as President Biden does today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kennedy family occupies an unusual place in the U.S. political imagination. President John F. Kennedy was a youthful, charismatic president who energized a generation of Americans until his shocking assassination in 1963. His brother Robert, a more tortured figure, was seen by many Democrats as the embodiment of tragic idealism after his own assassination in 1968 as he campaigned for president.<\/p>\n
Scandal has also followed the family, and while members of the next generation have also won political office, none have ascended to the heights of political and cultural influence of their parents. Yet the Kennedy mystique persists for many Democratic voters, especially older ones.<\/p>\n
That backdrop is one reason the candidacy of Kennedy Jr. has thrown such a twist into the current presidential campaign. The son and namesake of the revered senator has embraced controversial, unfounded claims on everything including vaccines and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol \u2014 rattling many Democrats and, it seems, some of his own family members.<\/p>\n
Several of those relatives have had pointed conversations with Kennedy Jr. about his candidacy, but to no avail, and many close to him say they do not believe he will drop out of the race. That understanding fueled the family\u2019s desire to join in a public endorsement of Biden, the people familiar on their conversations said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has not been easy for anybody, and I think what shouldn\u2019t be lost on anybody is despite the framing of the event, that was not an easy thing for anybody to do given the dynamics of this race,\u201d former congressman Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.), a grandson of the elder Robert F. Kennedy who now serves as Biden\u2019s special envoy for Northern Ireland, said in an interview. \u201cBut it was an important thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He, like other members of his family, declined to comment directly on his uncle\u2019s presidential campaign. A number of the candidate\u2019s family members have condemned Kennedy\u2019s comments on vaccines and other matters, but they have been careful not to frame their endorsement of Biden as an explicit rebuke of their relative. Instead, they say it is a reflection of their belief there are only two possible outcomes in November: Biden wins, or former president Trump wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the reality that we\u2019re in, there are only two people that have the ability to win this race,\u201d Joe Kennedy said. \u201cThere\u2019s only two parties that have the structures in place to be able to win this race. So any additional candidate in that dynamic is taking support away from one side or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Kennedy Jr. has not commented on his family\u2019s endorsement since the event occurred. Before his siblings gathered with Biden, however, he wrote on social media, \u201cI hear some of my family will be endorsing President Biden today. I am pleased they are politically active \u2014 it\u2019s a family tradition. We are divided in our opinions but united in our love for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 81 years old, Biden has found that his own path \u2014 involving both enormous political success and immense personal tragedy \u2014 in some ways mirrors that of the Kennedy family.<\/p>\n
After being steeped in Kennedy lore as a child, Biden found solace in the family\u2019s embrace when he faced the death of those closest to him. A few weeks after he was elected to the Senate in 1972, and before he was even sworn in, Biden\u2019s wife and daughter were killed in a car crash. His sons Beau and Hunter were injured, and Biden considered relinquishing his seat to take care of them.<\/p>\n
But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), along with other colleagues, convinced Biden to stay. Kennedy helped Biden set up his Senate office, becoming a mentor and close friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the president is somebody that has a deep value on family and puts a big premium on loyalty, and when you are there for somebody at their most vulnerable, he remembers it,\u201d Joe Kennedy said about his family\u2019s connection with Biden. \u201cIt\u2019s that relationship that I think has had a huge impact on members in both families, particularly for an older generation. They\u2019ve gone through immense loss, too, and so has he, so there\u2019s a commonality there.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to Joe Kennedy, many other Kennedys work in Biden\u2019s administration: Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, is ambassador to Australia; Victoria Reggie Kennedy, Edward Kennedy\u2019s widow, is the ambassador to Austria; Katherine Kennedy Townsend, one of Kennedy Jr.\u2019s siblings who stood onstage with Biden, previously worked in Biden\u2019s Labor Department as an adviser on retirement and pension issues. (The two ambassadors cannot engage in political activity and were not included in Thursday\u2019s endorsement event).<\/p>\n
That Philadelphia rally, which was largely spearheaded by Joe Kennedy and Kerry Kennedy, came after family members made clear they wanted to publicly endorse the president. It took months to organize, given the family\u2019s sprawling size. While there was some discussion of holding the event in Massachusetts, the Kennedys\u2019 traditional home, family members decided against it because most of them no longer live in the state.<\/p>\n
They Kennedys also wanted to campaign in a battleground state, and after the rally, some of then went door-knocking and met with Biden campaign volunteers in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
This month, nearly 50 members of the Kennedy clan gathered at the White House for the annual St. Patrick\u2019s Day celebration, staying for a private tour of the Oval Office and posing for a photo with Biden in the Rose Garden. Biden and many of the Kennedys shared the photo on social media, the first implicit rebuke of Kennedy Jr.\u2019s campaign by his family members.<\/p>\n
But during that visit, just as in Thursday\u2019s event, Kennedy Jr.\u2019s presidential campaign did not explicitly come up, family members said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of what was going in the Oval Office, people were talking to him about President Kennedy being there, and my father, and where he put the bust and why he likes to look at the bust of my father when he is making difficult decisions,\u201d Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said.<\/p>\n
She added, \u201cWe have a wonderful connection to Joe Biden. We love politics. We love this country. We love Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Growing up in a proud Irish Catholic middle-class family, Joe Biden\u2019s family idolized the Kennedys. They saw the Kennedys \u2014 successful, wealthy, attractive Irish Catholics \u2014 as the embodiment of the American Dream. Biden says Robert F. Kennedy Sr., whose bust sits in the Oval Office, inspired him to become a public defender and ultimately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}