Kerry Kennedy Says She Is "Deeply Ashamed" of Brother Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Over Michigan Remarks

Kerry Kennedy said she is "deeply ashamed" of her brother, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after he made remarks about Arab people at a campaign rally in Michigan. She posted her criticism on her official Facebook and X accounts.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at a rally for Mike Rogers, the Republican running in Michigan. According to Town & Country, he said there are 500 million Arabs in the world and that they "don't produce science." He also said they do not win the Nobel Prize, the Fields Prize (a top award in mathematics) or the Wolf Prize (an international science award), and that they "don't produce literature."

Kerry Kennedy responded on October 27. In a Facebook post, she described her brother's Michigan remarks as bigoted. She quoted a 2017 interview he gave to Larry King Now, in which he said the easiest thing for a political leader to do is appeal to bigotry, hatred, xenophobia and prejudice. She then wrote on Facebook and on X, under the handle @KerryKennedyRFK: "There was a time when I completely agreed with my brother. Today, I am deeply ashamed of him."

To answer the science claim, Kerry Kennedy listed several Arab winners of the same prizes. She cited Omar M. Yaghi, who won the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 2018 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2025. She also named Ahmed Zewail, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999, and Naguib Mahfouz, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988.

Cole Wozniak, a campaign spokesperson for Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, also responded. He said it was "rich to have an anti-scientist come to Michigan to lecture a doctor with two doctoral degrees who has spent his entire career working on public health." El-Sayed, the Democrat in the race, would be the first Muslim senator if elected, according to the same report.

The exchange puts a family dispute in public view. Kerry Kennedy and her brother have both been prominent in national politics for decades, and her post used his own words from 2017 to make her case. The Michigan campaign itself is the setting for the argument, and the remarks came from a speech at a political event, not a private conversation.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Rogers are the people at the center of the rally.