Jack Schlossberg tore into his cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday morning, calling the health secretary “a rabid dog” in Donald Trump’s Cabinet and accusing him of endangering Americans with junk science.
The 32-year-old grandson of President John F. Kennedy, who just announced his candidacy for Congress, said Trump, 79, is “so obsessed” with the Kennedys that “he caged one and put it in his Cabinet.”
“A rabid dog in his Cabinet, put a collar on my cousin RFK Jr. and has him there barking, spreading lies and spreading misinformation,” he raged.
In a no-holds-barred interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Schlossberg framed his run to represent New York’s 12th congressional district as a fight against “a crisis on almost every single level,” and pinned the blame for the government shutdown squarely on Trump.
But Schlossberg saved his anger for a member of his own family.
Turning his fire on Kennedy, 71, Schlossberg claimed the health and human services secretary “has cut a quarter of the people who work in his agency,” had “fired all the vaccine experts… and replaced them with anti-vaxxers” while the country faces “a measles outbreak… higher than it’s been in 40 years.
He also accused him of “cutting funding for life-saving research [for] cancer patients, giving them their last hope.”
Schlossberg’s arguments are backed up by statistics. HHS workforce reductions of roughly 10,000 jobs—about 12,000 from 82,000 to 62,000—were announced in spring, amid a wider reorganization led by Trump allies.
Schlossberg also blasted what he called Kennedy’s “lies.” Fact-checkers have flagged multiple misleading claims since Kennedy took the helm at HHS, including on COVID-19 vaccines, autism, and other topics.
In August, The Guardian reported that Kennedy’s department halted about $500 million in mRNA vaccine work, sparking warnings from scientists. The Daily Beast reported that same month that Kennedy and Trump were considering banning COVID shots altogether.
Pressed on whether Kennedy is profiting from his post, Schlossberg said: “I don’t know who’s paying him… [but] the American people should know when he barks, who’s actually talking.”
Schlossberg is one of several Kennedy family members to criticize his cousin’s support of and work with Trump since he abandoned his presidential campaign in August 2024. But Schlossberg has been the most vitriolic, mocking his cousin’s speech disorder in January, calling him a “sexual deviant” in April, and trolling his wife, Cheryl Hines, in July.
In the wide-ranging interview, Schlossberg argued Trump is “dismantling” his family’s legacy, citing the president’s demolition of the White House East Wing to build a ballroom and boasts about declassifying Kennedy assassination files.
He closed by urging Democrats not to “cave” in funding talks.
The Daily Beast has contacted HHS and the White House for comment.
