Robert F. Kennedy Jr grossed people out this year with a story about a parasitic worm eating part of his brain. Now he is back with another doozy about leaving a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park.
The independent presidential candidate, conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist made the disclosure in a three-minute video posted on social media on Sunday as he apparently tried to get out ahead of a New Yorker magazine story that mentions the weird tale of roadkill and stealth from a decade ago.
In the video shot at what looked like a post-meal chat with people including sitcom actress Roseanne Barr, Kennedy recounted the saga.
Photo: AP
He and friends were on a falconry excursion in New York state in 2014, Kennedy said, when a van ahead of him hit and killed a six-month-old black bear.
The scion of the most prominent political family in the US, eager to salvage the corpse for the meat, put it in the back of his own vehicle.
“And you can do that in New York state. You can get a bear tag for roadkill bear,” Kennedy, 70, said in a gravelly voice.
However, the falconry field trip ran late, so he could not get the remains back to his home in Westchester County. So did a dinner that he attended that evening in the Big Apple and Kennedy realized he would have to go straight to the airport for a flight he was due to take.
“The bear was in my car, and I didn’t want to leave the bear in the car because that would have been bad,” he said.
After Kennedy and company brainstormed, they took the carcass to Central Park and left it under an old bicycle Kennedy had in his car.
Kennedy said the plan was to make it look like a cyclist had killed the animal, an admission that drew laughter from people in the video.
“I wasn’t drinking, of course, but people were drinking with me who thought this was a good idea,” he said. “Then I thought, you know, at that time this was the little bit of the redneck in me.”
When the animal’s body was eventually found it became a huge news story.
“And I was like: ‘Oh my God, what did I do?’” Kennedy said. “I was worried because my prints were all over that bike.”
He said the story remained dormant for a decade until a fact-checker from the New Yorker called to verify it for a feature on Kennedy. The piece has yet to be published.
“It’s going to be a bad story,” Kennedy said with a laugh.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS