Robert Kennedy, Jr., the long-shot Democratic candidate for president, has backed a conspiracy theory that the CIA was involved in the killing of his uncle President John F. Kennedy, arguing evidence for such a claim is “overwhelming.”
“There is overwhelming evidence that the CIA was involved in his murder,” Kennedy said in an interview with John Catsimatidis on WABC 770, a radio station in New York City, which aired on Sunday. “I think it’s beyond a reasonable doubt at this point.”
The CIA has repeatedly denied any allegation that it was involved in the death of President Kennedy, who was shot while riding in a convertible in a parade in Dallas in 1963.
The assassination has served as the basis for some of the most well-known conspiracy theories of all time.
While Lee Harvey Oswald was officially identified as the gunman in the attack, conspiracy theories have circulated for years around the assassination, including casting doubt on whether only one shooter was involved and if others were connected to the attack.
A House committee assembled to investigate the killing said in a 1979 report that given the scientific evidence, it was probable that at least two gunmen fired at the president. It also concluded that he was likely assassinated as the result of a conspiracy, but could not identify the second gunman or the extent of the conspiracy.
John McCone, CIA director when Kennedy was assassinated, testified to the House committee that Oswald was not a CIA agent and the agency never communicated or associated with him. The commission said his testimony was corroborated by the CIA’s file on Oswald.
Kennedy, Jr. suggested in his Sunday interview that his uncle’s killing in November 1963 had to do with his refusal to commit U.S. forces to Vietnam.
“When my uncle was president, he was surrounded by a military-industrial complex and intelligence apparatus that was constantly trying to get him to go to war in Laos, Vietnam, etc,” Kennedy said. “He refused. He said that the job of the American presidency is to keep the nation out of war.”
During the interview, Kennedy also floated the conspiracy theory that the CIA may have been involved in the killing of his own father, Robert F. Kennedy, a former U.S. attorney general who was shot dead when campaigning for president in 1968 in Los Angeles.Robert Kennedy, Jr. said evidence of such involvement in his father’s death is “very convincing, but is circumstantial.”
“We do not have the really strong documentary testimonial evidence that we have with my uncle,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy, a prominent anti-vaccine activist, announced last month that he would mount a Democratic primary bid against President Biden in 2024.