Kennedy family to officially endorse Biden at campaign event in latest snub to RFK Jr

At least 15 members of the Kennedy family will officially endorse President Joe Biden for re-election on Thursday in the latest snub to independent candidate, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

The Kennedy family has mostly rejected the insurgent campaign by the environmental lawyer and vaccine skeptic, and will now officially back Mr Biden, who’s only the second Catholic president, John F Kennedy being the first.

The endorsement will come at a campaign event in Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon aspolling between Mr Biden and former President Donald Trump tightens.

A third-party candidate with the name recognition of a Kennedy could become a spoiler for Mr Biden as RFK Jr may pull away just enough votes for Mr Trump to be victorious in battleground states, and allow him to win the electoral college.

In a speech shared with media outlets ahead of time by the Biden campaign, Kerry Kennedy, the sister of the third-party candidate, will say that backing Mr Biden “is a vote to save our democracy and our decency”.

Meanwhile, she’ll slam Mr Trump as a candidate “running to take us backwards, attacking the most basic rights and freedoms that are core to who we are as Americans”.

“I can only imagine how Donald Trump’s outrageous lies and behaviour would have horrified my father, Robert F Kennedy, who proudly served as Attorney General of the United States, and honoured his pledge to uphold the law and protect the country,” Kennedy will say in her speech.

“Daddy stood for equal justice, human rights and freedom from want and fear. Just as President Biden does today,” she will add.

Robert F Kennedy served as his brother’s attorney general, and later as a New York Senator. He was assassinated while running for the Democratic nomination in