2024 Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blamed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the assassinations of his uncle and former President John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy, who announced his bid for White House last month, said during an interview Sunday with John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM’s “Cats Roundtable” that the CIA was “beyond a reasonable doubt” involved in his uncle’s murder while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963.
“The evidence is overwhelming that the CIA was involved in the murder and in the cover-up,” Kennedy said, referring to the book “JFK and the Unspeakable” by James Douglas, which compiled evidence supporting the theory of the federal government’s involvement.
Kennedy formally launched his 2024 Democratic presidential campaign last month on the promise of ending the merger of state and corporate power, becoming the second Democrat to announce a bid for the White House after longtime author, lecturer, and self-help guru Marianne Williamson announced her candidacy last month — both seeking to replace President Joe Biden, who officially announced his reelection campaign on April 25th in a video.
The CIA denies the claim made by RFK Jr. on its website, calling the theory a “lie.”
According to the Warren Commission Report created by the US government, Lee Harvey Oswald — a former Marine and onetime defector to the Soviet Union — was responsible for assassinating President Kennedy. Soon after the killing of JFK, authorities arrested and charged Oswald with the killings of Kennedy and Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit.
Although Oswald denied killing Kennedy and claimed he was a “patsy,” he was never tried — Oswald was shot dead at the age of 24 on national television at the Dallas Police headquarters by nightclub owner Jack Ruby less than 48 hours after JFK’s assassination.
Last year, President Joe Biden released about 98% of documents the CIA and FBI fought to keep secret about the JFK assassination. The rest of the records remain redacted in whole or in part, according to the National Archives, which controls the classified information.
Reports suggested that the CIA and FBI wanted the documents concealed because intelligence and law-enforcement informants from the era of the assassination who are still alive could be at risk by being publicly identified.
The National Archives and Records Administration has argued with the CIA and FBI for years, asserting that the agencies ignored the 1992 John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act designed to release all the documents.
The 1992 John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act catalyzed the release of files that suggested the CIA’s Mexico City station had surveilled Oswald when he visited Mexico City several weeks before the assassination and boasted he would kill Kennedy. POLITICO contended that documents point to the fact that the failure of the CIA station in Mexico to act with more speed when they surveilled Oswald in September and October 1963 prevented them from possibly stopping the assassination.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson revealed during one of his shows last year that he spoke to a source with direct knowledge of the documents sealed in Kennedy’s assassination, alleging the CIA was involved.
“We spoke to someone who had access to these still hidden CIA documents, a person who was deeply familiar with what they contained,” Carlson said. “We asked this person directly, ‘Did the CIA have a hand in the murder of John F. Kennedy, an American president?’
“And here’s the reply we received verbatim,” Tucker said. “‘The answer is yes. I believe they were involved. It’s a whole different country from what we thought it was. It’s all fake,'” he said, quoting the source.
Hank Berrien contributed to this report.