Biden Administration Probes RFK Jr. Over Whale Carcass Story
Robert Kennedy Jr.'s daughter told a magazine that her father had collected a head of a dead whale, prompting a NOAA probe.
The Biden administration has launched an investigation of former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for alleging cutting off the head of a whale carcass and then driving across state lines some two decades ago.
On September 16, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed to CNN that it had started the investigation. NOAA did not provide further comment.
At a rally on September 14 in Arizona, Kennedy claimed that he is the target of “the weaponization of our government against political opponents.” At the rally, Kennedy said, “I received a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Institute saying that they were investigating me for collecting a whale specimen 20 years ago.”
In 2012, Kennedy’s daughter, Kick Kennedy, told Town and Country Magazine that she and her siblings were with their father while he drove home with the whale head strapped on the hood of the car.
Referring to the five-hour trip, she said, “Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,.” Kick Kennedy said, “We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day-to-day stuff for us.”
There have been other reports of Kennedy’s run-ins with animals, living or dead. For example, Vanity Fair once published a photo of the Kennedy scion munching on the grilled carcass of an animal during a sojourn in Patagonia. He later said he was enjoying some of the region’s famed lamb. The magazine profile asserted that the charred animal was actually a dog, based on Kennedy’s reminiscence about a friend urging him to taste cooked dog in South Korea.
Kennedy has admitted to having discovered a bear cub carcass in New York State. With the hope of trying to eat bear meat, he put the carcass in his car. But there was ultimately not enough time for him to sample the meat. So he left the carcass in Central Park in New York City.
It was the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund that called on NOAA to probe the story, having argued that he may have jeopardized scientific research. The group has endorsed Kamala Harris. Its website states: “A second Trump term will be nothing short of catastrophic.” Brett Hartl serves as the group’s political director, and worked in the House Natural Resources Committee for the Democratic staff and was the senior policy fellow at the Society for Conservation Biology.