RUMBLE IN HYANNIS

It used to be that when you were a Kennedy you were a Kennedy all the way. Now factions of the famously private political family are squaring off ia public.

- BY WILLIAM D. COHAN

In late January, fresh off her two-year tenure as Joe Biden’s ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy did something decidedly undiplomatic. Back at her apartment on Park Avenue, Kennedy, the only surviving child of the slain 35th president of the United States, broke her family’s longstanding code of omertà. In a letter to U.S. senators, and in a widely circulated video of her reading the letter, she stated that her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—Bobby to family and friends—was unfit to be the secretary of Health and Human Services in the second Trump administration.

Caroline, the Kennedys’ 67-year-old de facto elder statesperson, explained that she hadn't spoken out against Bobby until now because “we are a close generation of 28 cousins who have been through a lot together... We know how hard it has been, and we are always there for each other?” But she wanted the senators to know before they voted on his nomination that Bobby “lacks any relevant government, financial, management, or medical experience... His views on vaccines are dangerous and willfully misinformed?” What’s more, his personal behavior was also disqualifying and was a greater concern. He was a “predatory” who takes risks and breaks the rules. “Bobby is addicted to attention and power” she said. “It’s incomprehensible that someone who is willing to exploit their own painful family tragedies for publicity would be in charge of American life-and-death situations.”

It was a jaw-dropping breach for a family famous for maintaining a united front through tragedy and scandal as well as success “It’s hard to imagine Caroline Kennedy doing anything like thi,” Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic analyst and former advisor to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, told the