US President Joe Biden is going to face a strong challenge in next year’s Presential elections by former US Attorney General’s son, Robert F Kennedy Jr. The latter has filed election paperwork to run for the White House in 2024 as a Democrat, reported BBC.
His lawyer’s campaign treasurer, John E Sullivan, confirmed the news on Wednesday, as mentioned by the BBC in its report. The 69-year-old leader is the son of assassinated Senator Robert F Kennedy and nephew of former US President John F Kennedy.
According to BBC, Instagram removed his account in 2021 for “repeatedly sharing debunked claims”. Notably, both Democratic and Republican parties hold their own contests – called primaries – to finalise their presidential nominee.
The incumbent US President Joe Biden has already hinted that he would be running for the top post again in 2024, though a formal announcement is yet to be made.
As per BBC’s report, Biden was previously expected to launch his campaign in early April, but top aides say his timeline has shifted.
BBC mentioned its US partner CBS News as reporting that Biden is expected to formally announce his candidacy in early summer.
Marianne Williamson, another Democrat, had also jumped into the presidential race last month. In March, Kennedy shared on Twitter that he was considering a run for the presidency.
He had said: “If I run, my top priority will be to end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedoms.”
Addressing a crowd in New Hampshire in March, BBC stated, Kenndey said he had “passed the biggest hurdle” – his wife approving the run.
Kennedy is the co-founder of an environmental law firm and had previously been lauded for campaigning on issues such as clean water, including working to clean up the Hudson River in New York, the report added.
However, he couldn’t stay away from controversy either as his anti-vaccine views had provoked a strong backlash, including from his own family. BBC stated that in 2021 his sister, Kerry Kennedy, called him “very dangerous” on the issue.
In 2019, his three other family members denounced his anti-vaccine views in an op-ed in the news outlet Politico.
In 2022, Facebook and Instagram removed Kennedy’s accounts for an anti-vaccine group founded by him for “repeatedly” violating company policies on medical misinformation.