In Opening Salvo, RFK Jr. Throws Shade at CIA

Says his uncle JFK learned to stand up to the 'doyens' of the military-industrial complex

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign Wednesday with an evocative video ad starring his family and a nearly 2-hour speech, in which he pledged to dismantle “the corrupt merger between state and corporate power” and hearkened to the messages of hope and truth that his father and uncle had campaigned on in the 1960s.

RFK Jr.’s oration ranged widely from the nation’s political divisions to the connection between the environment and economics, with emphasis on how corporate interests often manipulate both to the detriment of the nation.

‘Old Gray Men’

Speaking to a rapturous crowd at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, Kennedy took swipes at the “doyens” and “old gray men” of both the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff— for bad advice they gave to his uncle John F. Kennedy when he was president.