The outgoing US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, has labelled her cousin Robert F Kennedy Jr’s views on vaccines “dangerous”.
After a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia on Monday, Caroline Kennedy took aim at a number of Trump administration appointees including Tulsi Gabbard, warning that her appointment would “obviously … be of great concern”.
Donald Trump has nominated RFK Jr to oversee US health agencies, despite his propagation of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and Gabbard to be director of national intelligence, despite her being a vocal supporter of Russia.
Caroline Kennedy told reporters that as an ambassador, she’s “not supposed to comment on politics and now you’re asking me to also comment on family”.
“But, yes, I think Bobby Kennedy’s views on vaccines are dangerous … but I don’t think that most Americans share them. So we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
“But certainly he’s – you know, I grew up with him. So, I have known all this for a long time and others are just getting to know him.”
She noted her uncle Ted Kennedy “spent 50 years fighting for affordable healthcare in the Senate”, work that the former president Barack Obama built on with the Affordable Care Act.
“My Aunt Eunice started the Special Olympics and the national institute of maternal and child health is now named after her.
“So I would say that our family is united in terms of our support for the public health sector and infrastructure and has the greatest admiration for the medical profession in our country, and Bobby Kennedy has got a different set of views.”
Asked about Gabbard – a vocal supporter of Russia who Democratic lawmakers have said “poses a threat to US national intelligence” – and whether Australia should trust the US with sensitive intelligence, Caroline Kennedy replied that “there are thousands of people who work in our intelligence agencies and work closely with Australia and we have no more trusted or capable ally and that’s going to continue”.
“So let’s see what happens with President Trump’s appointments. They have been … making waves, headlines … let’s just calm down and wait and see what happens.
“But obviously that would be of great concern and we’ll see who … actually gets confirmed.”
Asked if the appointment of Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel could pave the way to annexation of the West Bank, Kennedy said she “can’t speculate” on the Trump administration’s Middle East policy.
“But obviously I was present at a campaign rally in 2008 where Governor Huckabee got a mobile phone from God almighty and he talked with him on the phone in front of a large audience. I don’t know.”
Trump’s election has caused consternation in Australia, which hopes to be exempted from tariffs due to the US trade surplus with its Indo-Pacific ally, and is increasingly entwined militarily with the US due to the Aukus alliance for the acquisition of nuclear submarines.
Kennedy, a usually media-shy ambassador, delivered the off-the-cuff answers after a speech arguing that Aukus was necessary as a deterrent to maritime disruption, citing Philippine and Vietnamese ships “rammed and sunk by Chinese coastguard vessels”.
“The long delays and higher prices that are resulting from the Middle East conflict are insignificant compared to the global consequences of a conflict in this region.
“Aukus is an existential investment in Australia’s sovereignty and way of life and you can’t put a price on that.”
Kennedy noted the Aukus alliance had “bipartisan support” in the US, including among the incoming Republican Congress majority.
On international efforts to combat climate change, Kennedy argued “the green energy transition is under way” and supported by the private sector. She said efforts were “multi-faceted” but conceded they might not be as “fast” under the Trump administration.
