A woman named Robert F Kennedy Jr. publicly accused of sexual assault when she worked for him as a babysitter, said she was motivated to do so when he released a campaign ad based on a famous ad for his uncle, President John F Kennedy.
Related: Matt Gaetz is withdrawing from consideration for becoming Trump’s attorney general
“I was literally watching the Super Bowl and saw the ad and thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” Eliza Cooney told USA Today.
The ad was released as Kennedy was running for president as an independent and was criticized by members of the famed Democratic political family. Kennedy Jr. apologized, but kept the ad online.
Nine months later, after withdrawing from the presidential race and endorsing Donald Trump, Kennedy is Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Health.
A hugely controversial choice given his promotion of vaccine conspiracy theories and other controversial health claims. Kennedy is also among Trump Cabinet picks accused of sexual misconduct.
Cooney initially told Vanity Fair how she started working for Kennedy in 1998, when she was 23 and he was a 45-year-old environmental lawyer. Describing a series of unwanted advances, she said Kennedy eventually “stood behind her… and began groping her, putting his hands on her hips and sliding them up her ribcage and breasts,” before being interrupted by someone who entered the room.
When asked about Cooney’s allegations, Kennedy told the BreakingPoints podcast that he was “not a church boy…I have so many skeletons in my closet,” but declined to comment further.
In the USA Today interview published Wednesday, Cooney said: “I know there are hard-working people who don’t have skeletons in their closet. And I wish we chose people with fewer skeletons in their closets.”
It was widely reported in July that Kennedy texted Cooney after the Vanity Fair story was published.
He wrote: “I read your description of an episode where I touched you in an unwanted way. I have no memory of this incident, but I sincerely apologize for anything I ever did that made you feel uncomfortable, or for anything I did or said that offended you or hurt your feelings. It was never my intention to harm you. If I hurt you, it was unintentional. I feel bad for doing this.”
Cooney told USA Today: “I don’t know if it’s an apology to say, ‘I don’t remember.’ In the context of all his public appearances, it seemed a bit – it didn’t make sense. It was like a throwaway.”
USA Today said it had contacted an attorney for a Kennedy nonprofit and Trump’s transition team for comment.
Perhaps busy dealing with allegations of sexual misconduct against Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Matt Gaetz, then the nominee for attorney general, the Trump transition did not immediately respond. The next day, Gaetz withdrew from consideration for a Cabinet post.
Cooney said she did not speak out about Kennedy “to try to stop his nomination or upend the confirmation” but that she did it “simply for public policy” after first telling people about the alleged attack during the #MeToo movement, starting in 2011. 2017, when many women named their sexual abusers.
Cooney said she “kind of put this aside” for a long time and saw sexual violence as “just the price of doing business.” “It’s remarkable that it happens so often. And I wonder: have we made any progress? This is like a throwback.”
