RFK Jr. denies eating dog but not assaulting nanny
The independent presidential candidate addressed recent allegations from a Vanity Fair profile
![Robert Kennedy Jr. at the Nixon Presidential Library](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/QUMkHjHef4iC446sfmQowa-415-80.jpg)
What happened
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on a podcast Tuesday that a Vanity Fair profile raising troubling questions about his past was "a lot of garbage." But he declined to deny sexually assaulting a 23-year-old live-in babysitter in 1998, when he was 45 and married to his second wife.
Who said what
"I am not a church boy," Kennedy said on the Breaking Points podcast when asked about allegations by ex-nanny Eliza Cooney that he asked her for a massage after appearing shirtless in her room and groped her in the pantry. "I said in my announcement speech that I have so many skeletons in my closet." He said he's "not going to comment" on whether he assaulted Cooney.
But RFK Jr. did insist a photo of him preparing to eat a roasted animal carcass did not show "me eating a dog," as Vanity Fair suggested, but rather "me eating a goat in Patagonia." The magazine said he texted the image to a friend last year, telling him he would enjoy a Korean restaurant that served dog.
What next?
Kennedy, 70, is only "polling at 9.1% of the national vote," The Guardian said, but "both the Biden and Trump campaigns fear he could pull votes away from them in key states."
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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