'It Is Painful for Me': Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Admits Not Having His Family's Support Prior to Upcoming 2024 Election Is 'Very Difficult'

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. admitted that it's been tough for him to run as an independent in the upcoming 2024 election — and without his family's support.

"It was it was very painful for me. I mean, I, you know, I was raised in the Democratic Party. My father, and my uncles were with leaders of the party. You know, our relationship with the Democratic Party goes back generations. My great-grandfather, Honey Fitz, was the first Irish-Catholic. mayor of Boston. My other great-grandfather, Patrick Kennedy, was aboard the Democratic Party. And so leaving the party of my, you know, my family is very, very difficult for me," he said on the Tuesday, October 10, episode of Fox & Friends. "But it was a choice that I didn’t feel I had a choice. And I think it’s the right thing right now because we’re seeing that, you know, it’s the same corporate donors that control both parties that they have. And the parties are in paralysis. They cannot within that party system, they are locked in, as in this war with each other."

He added, "The polarization that they’re polarizing the American public. And we need we need a strategy for unity in it, a strategy for bringing people together. And what I’ve found traveling the country is that there’s much more even among the most extreme Democrats and Republicans, there’s still more that we have in common than issues that are being used to drive us apart. Everybody wants a clean environment and everybody wants to take care of our veterans. Everybody wants our kids to have a good education. And we want to make everybody want to make sure the regulatory agencies are serving the public interest instead of working for the corporations that they’re supposed to regulate. And I think we need somebody who’s going to find those areas of agreement, the values we agree on, and then focus on these little issues that have us at each other’s throats."

As OK! previously reported, Kennedy Jr. announced he would not be running on the Democratic ticket anymore.

“I am here to declare myself an independent candidate,” he began on Monday, October 9, before saying Americans are “tired of the culture wars” and “ready to reclaim their freedom and independence.”

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However, the politician's brood doesn't seem to agree with his latest move.

"The decision of our brother Bobby to run as a third party candidate against Joe Biden is dangerous to our country," the statement signed by Rory Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend read.