Kennedy family rift over RFK Jr is 'devastating,' says Tim Shriver as he urges Americans to choose dignity
For most Americans, political arguments stay at the kitchen table, but for the Kennedys, they have played out on the national stage.
Tim Shriver, nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, said the family divide over Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been "devastating" and warned others not to make the same mistakes.
Speaking on "Special Report" Tuesday, Shriver argued the solution to the division in the country isn’t found in politics, but in how Americans treat one another.
"In my family, it's devastating for my generation, my cousins, my brother, my sisters, for my children's generation who see their parents unable to navigate differences of opinion," Shriver, CEO of UNITE, said. "
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Cracks within the Kennedy family became more public when RFK Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, then as an independent and later endorsed President Donald Trump.
In August 2024, several Kennedy family members released a statement responding to RFK Jr.’s endorsement of Trump, writing, "Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story."
A year later, several family members called on him to resign from his Cabinet position as secretary of Health and Human Services. But Shriver, RFK Jr.’s cousin, said he will still have a seat at his table.
"I'm going to have dinner with him next week," Shriver said when asked if he’d be spending the Fourth of July with his cousin.
It’s the same answer Shriver had in 2024, when he joined "Special Report" to say RFK Jr. would be at his house for Thanksgiving, despite the recent Trump endorsement and statement from their family.
"The reality is that this dehumanizing contempt is tearing our country apart," Shriver said at the time. "The estimates are about 100 million Americans have broken off a relationship in their own family," he added.
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Now, Shriver is trying to change that. His company, UNITE, has created the "Dignity Index," designed to measure contempt in communication and aims to lower the temperature of political language. It asks participants whether they believe "each of us is born with inherent worth, so we treat everyone with dignity—no matter what."
On the other end of the scale is a different, more dangerous attitude: "They’re not even human. It’s our moral duty to destroy them before they destroy us."
Shriver said he hopes the tool can help repair families, warning others not to follow the same fractured path his own family has navigated.