RFK Jr. Campaign Denies Involvement in Fundraiser Flap

To the uninformed eye or the nostalgic memory, the fundraiser lineup sounded plausible: a presidential candidate named Kennedy, a world-renowned tenor as the headline performer, liberal actor Martin Sheen who portrayed a liberal president on a storied TV show about the White House there as a “well-wisher,” along with six-time Grammy award winner Dionne Warwick.

But the story is not true, and the star-studded lineup promoted online by the super PAC backing independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not happening.

“I don’t know anything about this event. I did not agree to it and I certainly won’t be there,” Warwick said on social media, responding to a post by super PAC American Values 2024 saying she would be at a Jan. 22 California event to raise money for Kennedy and celebrate his 70th birthday.

She later added, “This is absolutely ridiculous. If you are going to lie on my name, at least lie about something cool. ‘Revealed: Dionne collaborates with Rihanna on new album …'”

Sheen followed by proxy Thursday night, with the real actors who played his fictional staff going online to clear the air.

“Martin asked us to post this on his behalf. ‘I wholeheartedly support President Joe Biden and the democratic ticket in 2024. Sincerely, Martin Sheen,'” Bradley Whitford, who played deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman on the show The West Wing. Janel Maloney, who played staffer Donna Moss on the show, posted a similar statement.

“Whether they were just making it up outright or grossly distorting what they believed was the truth, real campaigns don’t do this sort of thing,” says Matt Bennett, executive vice president of the centrist group Third Way. But “I think it’s a lie,” Bennett adds, and “I think it is extremely dangerous” because there are people who will see the wrong information online, believe it, and let it affect their votes.

“It is absolutely terrifying because we are in a post-facts moment in our politics,” Bennett says, fueling disinformation during a particularly fraught and consequential election season.

Kennedy’s campaign website does not list the fundraiser in its upcoming events (although private fundraisers are not always included in candidates’ public event calendars). But the MailOnline, a British news outlet, ran a story in late December claiming that Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli would be performing at the fundraiser and that Sheen, Warwick and former prizefighter Mike Tyson would be there to show their support.

American Values 2024 reposted that story, along with the incorrect details of the event, leading others to either cheer Kennedy’s star-studded campaign coup or lament the (non) fact that the likes of Sheen were supporting a candidate who has trafficked in conspiracy theories about Jews and the COVID-19 vaccine.

Bocelli’s management agency did not respond to a request for comment, but a spokesperson for the singer told Rolling Stone that he was not singing for Kennedy. Bocelli is scheduled to perform in Prague Jan. 13 and in the Middle East Jan. 26 and 27, with no US performances until Feb. 14.

The Kennedy campaign blamed the PAC for the mistake.

“The Indian Wells [California] fundraiser is a PAC event. The campaign doesn’t have anything to do with the organization of this event. The campaign has no knowledge of who is attending and can’t confirm or deny anyone’s participation, either as entertainment or as a guest,” the Kennedy campaign said in a statement.

Kennedy, the son of slain 1968 Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, began his 2024 presidential bid last April, running as a Democrat. He abandoned the primary campaign the following month, announcing he would run as an independent.

Kennedy initially drew support from Democratic voters, and it was evident his famous political name was boosting support among a primary electorate unhappy with its incumbent president, Joe Biden. An Echelon Insight poll last July, for example, found that when voters were shown photos of the late RFK and his son, the candidate, 41% incorrectly identified the elder Bobby Kennedy as the current candidate.

Last summer, polling showed that Kennedy’s appeal was waning among Democrats as they learned more about his views on vaccines and other matters, while his approval ratings among Republicans increased. Kennedy’s own extended family has issued statements criticizing his comments and views, denouncing his candidacy as “perilous.”

“Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment. Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us,” four of his Democratic siblings wrote in an open letter last year.

Now it is less clear how RFK Jr.’s third-party candidacy will affect the race. A Quinnipiac University poll last month found that a fifth of voters were at least considering a vote for Kennedy. Both Biden and GOP front-runner Donald Trump suffer equally from a three-way matchup, the poll found, with 3 in 10 Kennedy supporters saying they would otherwise vote for Biden and a separate 3 in 10 saying they would cast ballots for Trump if Kennedy is not on their ballot.