Sure, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s famous relatives may have disowned the independent presidential candidate, but certain familial tendencies run deep — or at least they do on the activist’s TikTok account.
Yes, it seems the nephew of both our most notoriously philandering president and a senator credited with the incident that led to the creation of the Beltway euphemism “waitress sandwich” apparently likes the lewder sections of TikTok. Or, at least, whatever intern was running his account did.
In an unearthed comment from 2022 posted under a video of a scantily clad woman showing off her posterior, Kennedy’s official TikTok account voiced its approval — stating “Wow” with two emojis featuring a smiley face surrounded by hearts.
“Since @RobertKennedyJr wants to run his mouth, perhaps he can explain why he was on TikTok liking thirst traps while married,” one social media user calling himself “johnny maga” wrote when the video was discovered on Wednesday.
WARNING: The following posts contain graphic footage and language that some readers will find offensive.
Since @RobertKennedyJr wants to run his mouth, perhaps he can explain why he was on TikTok liking thirst traps while married pic.twitter.com/TL51DkK9Up
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) January 31, 2024
For the uninitiated, a “thirst trap” is an individual — usually female — who posts provocative photos or videos of themselves on social media (usually TikTok or Instagram) in order to get attention, clicks and likes.
Others mocked the candidate on social media for the remark, as well:
RFK jr 👀 pic.twitter.com/mgyey9md36
— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) February 1, 2024
🇺🇸 It appears RFK was caught commenting on a provocative video on TikTok
Could this have been his intern running his account, forgetting he was signed in as RFK?
Never a dull moment in this election…pic.twitter.com/KAtX5mDSNB
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 1, 2024
NEW: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s TikTok account commented on a ‘thirst trap’ video back in 2022.
The video was of a TikTok influencer showing off her butt in which RFK Jr. responded with: “Wow 🥰🥰”
The comment was made on September 16, 2022 and appears to have since been taken… pic.twitter.com/PYaUbFgnXC
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 1, 2024
Oopsie…
RFK Jr Caught Commenting on a TikTok Post of a Girl with a Phat Ass 😂😂🤣🤣🤣
Either he did it… or someone who manages his campaign accounts forgot which account they were logged in under. https://t.co/VgLmEVqLmj
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) February 1, 2024
Now, it’s worth pointing out several things here. The first is that interns have embarrassed politicians before by forgetting they were posting under the aegis of their employer instead of their own personal accounts.
For instance, in 2017, Sen. Ted Cruz’s official account “liked” a pornographic video on Twitter; according to BuzzFeed News, the issue was that a staffer forget which account they were using. The internet still had a great laugh over it and speculated it was really the senator, even though I’m pretty sure Ted knows enough not to be “liking” porn on social media platforms.
Furthermore, internet celebrity Jake Paul posted in September — long after the 2022 response to the thirst trap — that he had to teach RFK Jr. “how to use Tik Tok because they need the youth to beat the big dogs,” implying he wasn’t familiar with the platform.
I’m teaching the underdog presidential candidates (who I think are best for this country) how to use Tik Tok because they need the youth to beat the big dogs.
As a millennial it’s important for our presidents to understand us and to be able to connect with us.
We’ve lost sight… pic.twitter.com/CL4AckXEcv
— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) September 28, 2023
Kennedy was, at the time, aiming to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination; he shortly thereafter announced he would be running as an independent.
That being said, even before he was known as a controversial anti-vaccine activist, RFK Jr. was rather infamous for the same problems with, ahem, sexual continence that plagued his forbears.
A 2015 tell-all titled “RFK Jr and the Dark Side of the Dream” noted that, “Of all the Kennedy men — most known to be notorious womanizers — Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. had the most wives (three) and an untold number of sexual liaisons,” according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail. “His sex and drug addiction problems lasted for years. In his private diary, he called his obsession with women his ‘lust demons.’”
The excerpt from the book alleged that he had multiple affairs with individuals he met in Alcoholics Anonymous; New York Magazine reported that RFK Jr.’s diary indicated he had affairs with at least 37 women in 2001 alone.
Did this make you mad?
He’s been married to actress Cheryl Hines since 2014; in an interview with The New York Times in 2023, Hines revealed that he offered to separate from her during his presidential run in order to shield her from the blowback from the media.
Furthermore, it’s unclear why RFK Jr. would have interns running his TikTok account in 2022, when he wasn’t running for the 2024 presidential election — although, he is a Kennedy, so he can afford to have interns do pretty much whatever he needs to have done.
However, if you’re being drawn to RFK Jr.’s campaign because he’s a Kennedy who isn’t really like the rest of the Kennedys — well, at least in some ways, he definitely is. As the Democrats hammer Donald Trump over his three marriages, it’s worth remembering that RFK Jr. was Democratic royalty in good standing — even during his vaccine-denial days — until that vaccine-denial included the COVID-19 inoculation.
While he hopes to steal votes from Biden, he probably also wants to steal votes from Republicans who aren’t exactly pleased with Donald Trump, some because of Trump’s personal failings. Whatever those may be — and, let’s be frank, they do exist — let’s also note that, from all accounts, the GOP front-runner is basically a combination of Billy Graham, Bishop Fulton Sheen and Albert Schweitzer when compared to RFK Jr.
Sure, Kennedy may not have been the one who left that comment for the TikTok thirst trap, but it’s a lewd reminder that it certainly wouldn’t have been out of character for the guy.
