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Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy said he believes his cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be open to a bipartisan alliance to overhaul the US government’s approach to mental health and addiction.
Kennedy, a longtime campaigner who has spoken about his struggles with bipolar disorder and drug addiction, told Semafor in an interview in Davos that since Donald Trump’s victory, he has discussed with his cousin the prospect of working together.
“That was then. This is now. We lost. So I can’t go away for four years, and this movement can’t go away for four years,” he said. Instead, Kennedy said he hoped to build alliances within the Trump administration — “including with my cousin Bobby” — that built on its pledge to “make America healthy again.”
“It’s impossible to treat all the chronic illnesses the administration wants to attack with MAHA if you’re not including behavioral health as part of the medical record, and yet that’s not subsidized by the federal government,” he said. Rethinking mental health and addiction policy could also help Elon Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency cut federal healthcare spending, he added.
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The two members of the Kennedy clan were on opposite sides of the 2024 election, with Patrick Kennedy, who represented Rhode Island’s 1st congressional district from 1995 to 2011, publicly endorsing Joe Biden when his cousin was in the middle of a rival run for the presidency. Some other cousins accused Kennedy Jr of “betraying” their family’s values when he later endorsed Trump.
Kennedy said he was “very anxious” about speaking to Kennedy Jr. after the election, “because he’s brought a lot of this on himself” with his skepticism about vaccines. But he rejected the idea that his cousin is “anti-science”, defending Kennedy Jr’s “honest positions” on issues such as medication-assisted treatment for depression, which the health secretary nominee has been critical of in the past.
“We’re both in recovery together, and so he knows my journey,” said Kennedy, saying his cousin had a “visceral” understanding of mental health issues. Kennedy Jr. has drawn criticism for favoring alternative responses such as 12-step addiction recovery programs, but “he is for all roads to recovery.”