A strange incident that occurred ten years ago has plagued the campaign of Robert F. Kennedy, the third-place candidate in the 2024 US presidential election. The independent candidate was forced to admit this weekend that he left the body of a dead bear cub in Central Park in New York ten years ago because he thought it was “funny.” The incident became a mystery in the city, whose residents took to social media in search of information about the alleged cyclist who ran over and left the body in the popular park.
The bizarre confession came Sunday in a video posted by Kennedy himself, an environmental lawyer, son of former prosecutor Bobby Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy. RFK Jr., as the libertarian candidate is known, told the anecdote to Roseanne Barr, the Trumpist comedian who was canceled by ABC after writing a racist tweet.
According to the account, Kennedy was in Goshen, in upstate New York, with some falconry enthusiasts. That morning, at about 7 a.m., he was driving in the Hudson Valley. “A woman in the pickup truck in front of me hit a bear and killed it, a very young bear,” the candidate said, sitting in a kitchen. Barr listened to him over a cup of coffee.
“I picked up the bear and put it in the back of my truck because I was going to skin it and it was in pretty good condition. And I was going to put its meat in the refrigerator, which is legal in the state,” Kennedy continued. The day was spent falcon hunting and, instead of returning to his home in Westchester, he drove to New York, where he had dinner at a famous steakhouse. After that appointment, he remembered that he had to go to the airport, but that he still had the dead animal in the trunk.
“At that time, and I think this was the hick in me (…) there had been several bicycle incidents in New York, which had just introduced bike lanes. A couple of people had even died (…) I hadn’t been drinking, but there were people with me who had and they thought it was a great idea. I also had a bicycle in the car. Someone told me to put the bear in Central Park and make it look like it had been hit by a bicycle,” said a nervous Kennedy while the comedian laughed. “Everyone thought it was a great idea!” added the candidate, who is also an anti-vaccine activist.
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The revelation was a campaign strategy to get ahead of a publication of the magazine this Monday The New Yorker. Journalist Clare Malone recounts this episode in the middle of a long text about the peculiar adventure that the heir of one of the most famous families in American politics undertook on his way to the White House. An effort that, by the way, is not supported by the rest of the Kennedy clan, who have called for voting for the Democratic Party.
“Waiting to see how they turn this around, New Yorker,” the candidate wrote when posting the video. The magazine, known for subjecting its texts to a harsh process of information verification, did not respond. The piece is accompanied by an image from that day. Kennedy appears sitting in the back of the truck, acting as if the dead bear were biting his left hand. The man pretends to grimace in pain.
RFK Jr.’s supporters took to social media to defend him and attack the magazine, and the mainstream media in turn, for focusing on “trivialities.” Kennedy’s admission, viewed by 13 million people on X alone, became a viral event for New Yorkers in 2014, when a woman walking her dogs came across the body. A decade later, city residents have finally found the missing piece of the puzzle.
“There haven’t been bears in the park for a long time. It looks like someone brought it there, which is very sad,” CNN journalist John Berman said in a 2014 clip that has resurfaced in the wake of the new controversy. City authorities then determined that the bear had been killed by a car. Local New York media have said that a district attorney is investigating the incident and does not rule out the possibility of charges being filed.
This episode has become a new obstacle for Kennedy’s campaign, which has developed from controversy to controversy. He seeks to become the third way in the face of the elections with a message that aims to unite the divisions left by the polarization between Democrats and Republicans.
Polls give Kennedy, who is running alongside Silicon Valley millionaire Nicole Shanahan as his vice presidential candidate, between two and seven percentage points. That figure could be very valuable in a race that looks set to be very close between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
The independent campaign, however, faces several legal challenges to get Kennedy and Shanahan’s names on the presidential ballot. The candidates have gathered the necessary signatures to compete in at least 42 states. In several of these, such as North Carolina, New Jersey or New York, litigation has been launched to prevent their participation in the election.
Clear Choice, an organization of Joe Biden supporters, sued Kennedy in New York, accusing him of lying on his registration form. The lawyer and anti-vaccine activist claimed in the lawsuit that he lives in a house upstate. But Clear Choice members argue that Kennedy Jr. has lived in Los Angeles since at least 2014, when he married actress Cheryl Hines, from the hit series Curb Your Enthusiasm.
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