Comedian Sarah Silverman trolled Robert F Kennedy Jr during her return to The Daily Show, describing him as the “world’s oldest Nepo baby”.
Mr Kennedy, who is the nephew of John F Kennedy, is running as an independent candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Experts have predicted he could capture 24 percent of the vote, taking away millions of votes from the Democrats and Republicans.
“If he gets 24 percent in the election, it would be the best showing for a third-party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt,” Ms Silverman explained on Monday.
She added that the 2024 election could be a three-way race between Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Mr Kennedy if he wins enough support to qualify beyond the primaries.
“America could set the record for indeed hiring the world’s oldest nepo baby,” she joked.
Mr Kennedy has previously made baseless claims that vaccines are linked to brain disorders, while he also claimed that the virus which causes Covid-19 was “ethnically targeted” and was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people”.
Ms Silverman trolled the presidential candidate for his anti-vaxx views on Monday, joking that if he were to win 24 percent of the vote, it would be “the best showing for polio since Franklin Roosevelt.”
Mr Kennedy’s own family has condemned his presidential run as “dangerous” and “perilous for our country.”
“Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment,” his sister, Kerry Kennedy, wrote on behalf of four members of the illustrious political dynasty, the Kennedy family.
John F Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg also condemned his cousin, calling him an “embarrassment” to the family name.
Robert F Kennedy Jr— (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
“He’s trading in on Camelot, celebrity, conspiracy theories and conflict for personal gain and fame,” Mr Schlossberg said.
“I’ve listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president. What I do know is, his candidacy is an embarrassment.”
Mr Kennedy originally positioned himself to run as a Democrat against Joe Biden, but announced he would run as an independent after the Democratic National Committee announced it would not hold debates, instead giving its full support to the president’s run for a second term in the Oval Office.
Mr Kennedy, who is the son of the late US Senator Robert F Kennedy, previously filed candidacy papers for the Democratic nomination with the FEC in April, though allies of president Joe Biden had dismissed his campaign as “unserious”.
Despite his family’s close ties to the Democratic party, most of Mr Kennedy’s supporters are on the right. Polls show far more Republicans than Democrats have a favourable opinion of Mr Kennedy, according to AP.
He has also built close relationships with several far-right figures in recent years, having appeared on a channel run by the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
He also headlined a stop on the ReAwaken America Tour, the Christian nationalist road show put together by Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
In 2017, Mr Kennedy was tapped by then-president-elect Mr Trump to oversee a presidential panel to review vaccine safety and science - despite having repeatedly expressed scepticism about vaccines.
