John F. Kennedy’s only living grandson Jack Schlossberg is issuing a bizarre challenge to his cousin, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“RFK Jr.—sexual deviant, possible murderer and top public health official, I have got a challenge for you,” Schlossberg said in a video posted to Instagram. “Me and you. One on one, locked in a room, we hash this out. Nobody comes out until one of us has autism. What do you say?”
Though it’s unclear exactly what kind of challenge Schlossberg is proposing, the post, titled “ME vs RFKJR,” appears to be a satirical jab at Kennedy’s controversial views on autism, which the secretary described last week as a “preventable disease” caused by a mysterious environmental toxin.
Kennedy sparked backlash after claiming that people with autism will “never pay taxes; they’ll never hold a job; they’ll never play baseball; they’ll never write a poem; they’ll never go out on a date—many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.” He later clarified that he meant “nonverbal” people specifically.
Schlossberg, whose hyperactive online presence often targets Trumpworld figures, has been a relentless critic of Kennedy since the anti-vaccine activist launched his longshot presidential bid in 2023, accusing Kennedy of “trading in on Camelot, celebrity, conspiracy theories, and conflict for personal gain and fame.”
In February, Schlossberg deleted his social media accounts after he received backlash for appearing to mock Kennedy’s spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder that makes it difficult for him to speak—only to return to Instagram less than a month later.
Kennedy, who has long promoted the discredited link between vaccines and autism, has become obsessed with finding the cause of autism. He is now spearheading a massive federal research push to find what the cause of what he calls is an “autism epidemic.”
Autism rates are on the rise among young kids in the United States, according to data from the CDC last week. The survey found autism prevalence in the U.S. increased from 1 in 36 children in 2020 to 1 in 31 in 2022. In 2018 the figure was 1 in 44.
The federal agency said this could be in part because of “increased access to identification among previously underserved groups.”
Meanwhile, the health secretary is contending with a large measles outbreak clustered in the Southwest, with the number of national cases exceeding 800 since January. Nearly all infections are among people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown, but Kennedy has spread misinformation about the measles vaccine even as he has endorsed it.
Kennedy, who is now married to Cheryl Hines, is infamous for his alleged infidelity. He went through a contentious divorce with his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, in the 2010s, after she reportedly found a “sex diary” in which he allegedly chronicled his affairs. In a legal draft, Richardson, who died by suicide in 2012, referred to him as a “sexual deviant,” according to Mother Jones.
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