Ask another Kennedy what he can do for Dems

Daily Point

Loose Kennedy buzz: The next generation

Just three days before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. quit his "independent" campaign and endorsed Republican Donald Trump for president, the Democratic National Convention trotted out a Kennedy of its own.

Jack Schlossberg, the 31-year-old grandson of the late president John F. Kennedy and son of Caroline Kennedy, greeted the DNC Aug. 20 and spoke for two minutes. JFK, he said, was his hero.

"He inspired a new generation to ask what they could do for our country," Schlossberg said, adding that Kamala Harris "believes in America like my grandfather did, that we do things not because they’re easy but because they’re hard." He did extensive media interviews and also posted his own interviews with Democratic governors.

Three days later, after his older cousin announced for Trump, Schlossberg tweeted: "Never been less surprised in my life. Been saying it for over a year — RFKjr is for sale, works for Trump. Bedfellows and loving it. Kamala Harris is for the people — the easiest decision of all time just got easier."

Of course, that prompts buzz about a future Schlossberg bid for some office. He was quoted as saying in June: "Not anytime soon but I love politics. I love public service. I’m inspired by that legacy of my family. But I have no immediate plans." His offbeat Instagram account has increasingly gotten more political with recent posts of charts showing Trump weaker than the Biden administration on energy production, GDP growth and job creation.

So there he was, making the scene in Chicago. Before a New York DNC delegation breakfast, Schlossberg had a mutually praising, panel-like discussion with Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who’s 66, the same age as his mother. "I grew up in an Irish Catholic family," the governor said. She’d visit her grandparents, she said, and "on their wall ... you walk in the house, there was a picture of the Pope, and a picture of Jack Kennedy right next to him. And a picture of Jesus Christ."

"So I grew up thinking, the Pope and Jesus are kind of the same as Jack Kennedy. They were, all three, important." She cited his book "Profiles in Courage" to praise those who stood against the tide "in doing what’s right."

The forgotten feud

Speaking of Kennedy legacies, a strange slice of history linking Trump and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s son generally remains forgotten in the news media frenzy of the current campaign.

Ten days before Trump’s inauguration in 2017, RFK Jr., long a superspreader of disproved anti-vaccine theories, told reporters after a meeting in Manhattan’s Trump Tower that the president-elect had asked him to chair a "commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity" — and that he’d accepted.

But within hours, the GOP transition team said otherwise. Trump, they said, "enjoyed his discussion" with Kennedy and was "exploring the possibility of forming a committee on Autism, which affects many families; however no decisions have been made at this time."

The "commission" never came to be. By the following February, Kennedy expressed dismay with the Trump administration.

This happened years before a vaccine was developed during Trump’s tenure to fight the COVID-19 scourge. The vaccine later was subject of shunning on the political right including from many Trump fans. Kennedy said then: "I’ve seen a tremendous deflation among a community of parents and children’s health advocates across the country who believed the promises that President Trump made ... who put tremendous faith in him and now are feeling enormous betrayal and disappointment."

So nearly eight years after their initial near-bonding, the peculiar Trump-Kennedy mutual messaging effort has resumed. Where it stops, nobody knows.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

The news break

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Quick Points

Deals of convenience

• After the bodies of six hostages were discovered by Israeli forces in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of cease-fire talks, "Whoever murders hostages does not want a deal." Which works for him since he doesn’t want a deal, either.
• Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says former President Donald Trump will "make Americans healthy." So he’s still spouting conspiracy theories.
• Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who left the party and allied herself with Donald Trump, warned that Vice President Kamala Harris is "not to be underestimated" as a debater. Judging from Trump’s waffling over whether he’s going to show up for the debate, it seems like he already knows that. 
• Kamala Harris just finished what some experts are saying is the best month in the history of presidential politicking — and she’s essentially tied with Donald Trump. Makes you wonder where she’d be if she didn’t have the best month in the history of presidential politicking.
• Russia said it intercepted and destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones during Saturday-to-Sunday overnight attacks. What Russia didn’t say was how many drones got through.
• The Long Island Rail Road is taking steps to improve problems with missed connections at Jamaica, an action some would say has been, well, you know, delayed.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com

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