“In honor of Bobby, I am announcing tonight that upon my election, I will establish a new independent presidential commission on Assassination Attempts,” said former President Donald Trump this week, according to a Truth Social post.
He was referring to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an environmental lawyer who suspended his campaign for the White House as an independent candidate Friday and announced he was backing Trump, the GOP’s presidential candidate. Kennedy is the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the late President John F. Kennedy, Jr. Both Democratic lawmakers were assassinated in the 1960s.
Kerry Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy’s sister, and his other siblings denounced their brother’s choice to back Trump in an X post this week.
“Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear,” said the post. “It is a sad ending to a sad story.”
It also said his siblings are supporting the campaign of Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris.
This Thursday, Kennedy shared a video on social media of his interview with public speaker Jibrial Muhammad. In it, he said he believes the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is “clearly” linked to the assassinations of his family members, as well as the assassinations of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. During the interview, Kennedy also referenced a civil lawsuit King’s family filed against the government and investigations into whether his uncle’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was a CIA asset.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Oswald – who was killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby shortly after he shot John F. Kennedy Jr. in Dallas – acted alone.
“The CIA is still involved in covering up the final documents that are legally – the government is legally required – Congress passed a law saying that by 2018, all documents related to my uncle’s assassination had to be released, and the CIA will not allow that to happen,” Kennedy claimed. “President Trump ran in 2016, and said he was going to release them all, he got into office and he changed his mind. President [Joe] Biden made the same promise, he got into office and he changed his mind. What are they hiding?”
In addition to John F. Kennedy, Jr., three other U.S. presidents have been killed by assassins, according to POLITICO. They are: Abraham Lincoln, killed by John Wilkes Booth in 1865; President James Garfield, killed by Charles J. Guiteau in 1881 and President William McKinley, who was shot by Leon Czolgosz in 1901. Throughout the nation’s history there have also been numerous assassination attempts, including those on Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Regan.
In July, Trump became the subject of an assassination attempt himself. At a rally in Butler, Pa., a 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Trump while he delivered a speech, clipping his ear and killing bystander Corey Comperatore. Following the attack, the Secret Service was criticized for not preventing the shooting.
Trump revealed that Kennedy called him after the assassination attempt to express his best wishes.
Now, the former president says that he will release “all remaining documents pertaining to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and other events in question,” if he’s elected in November, adding that the assassination commission “will conduct a rigorous review of the attack last month in Butler.”