Kathrine Frich
“Bobby Kennedy was the reason I got involved in politics,” Scarborough said on the broadcast.
Carrying a famous family name in politics comes with heavy expectations.
Voters inevitably measure the next generation against the deeds and words of their parents.
This week, a prominent television host argued that one high-ranking official has completely betrayed his father’s legacy.
Remarks spark outrage
According to HuffPost, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. triggered fierce backlash after attacking Arab people during a campaign stop in Michigan. While stumping for Republican Senate hopeful Mike Rogers and gubernatorial candidate John James, the cabinet official told attendees that Arab people “don’t produce science.”
“They don’t win the Nobel Prize. They don’t win the Fields Prize. They don’t win the Wolf Prize. They don’t produce literature,” he said.
HuffPost noted that those claims are completely untrue, as five Arab figures have received the Nobel Peace Prize and several have taken home Nobel awards in science. Even Kennedy’s own sister, Kerry Kennedy, stepped forward on X to condemn his remarks.
“A person’s race, religion, ethnicity or socioeconomic background does not determine their intellect, creativity or capacity to contribute to humanity. My thoughts are with all those hurt by my brother’s false, cruel and derogatory words,” she wrote on X.
A tarnished name
On Wednesday morning, “Morning Joe” anchor Joe Scarborough tore into the health secretary over the Michigan speech. Calling the remarks “one of the most asinine things” he had ever listened to, the MS Now presenter contrasted the outburst with the unifying vision of the secretary’s late father, Bobby Kennedy.
“Bobby Kennedy was the reason I got involved in politics,” Scarborough said on the broadcast. “It’s hard to even imagine how ashamed he would be of his son for denigrating over a billion people because of their faith,” he continued.
Scarborough also pointed to Bobby Kennedy’s famous 1968 Indianapolis address calling for calm after the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., calling the younger Kennedy’s turn toward prejudice “the opposite of what his father did.” He then questioned why the health chief had thrown away his family reputation.
“He is gone. And for what? 30 pieces of silver? What has he sacrificed his extraordinary legacy for?” Scarborough asked his co-hosts. “So many good things, and yet they get down in the gutter with Donald Trump, for what?”
