Federal agency investigating RFK Jr. after severed whale’s head story resurfaces
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at the Libertarian National Convention on May 24, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association is investigating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after the resurfacing of a decades-old incident in which Kennedy allegedly drove a dead whale’s head across state lines, a representative for the agency told ABC News.
Kate Silverstein, a spokeswoman for NOAA Fisheries, told ABC News Monday that the agency was investigating Kennedy, confirming what the former independent presidential candidate told a crowd in Arizona over the weekend.
“I received a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Institute saying that they were investigating me for collecting a whale specimen 20 years ago,” Kennedy said at the event, where he was campaigning for former President Donald Trump, whom he endorsed after suspending his own campaign.
In a 2012 Town and Country article, Kennedy’s daughter, Kick Kennedy, told an anecdote about her father’s handling of a dead whale that washed up on a Massachusetts beach.
Robert Kennedy used a chainsaw to cut off the head of the whale and strapped it to the roof of his minivan roughly three decades ago, Kick Kennedy recounted.
The story resurfaced last month and drew condemnation from at least one environmental group, which called for the NOAA to investigate.
Silverstein did not respond to a question seeking confirmation that NOAA’s investigation was related to the incident Kick Kennedy described.
She said the agency does not comment on ongoing investigations.
(CHICAGO) — The parents of one of an Israeli-American hostage brought many Democratic National Convention delegates to tears on Wednesday as they recounted 320 days of anguish and pushed for a cease-fire deal to bring their son home.
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were greeted with huge cheers and chants of “Bring them home,” as they spoke on stage, fighting back tears. The 23-year-old was at a music festival in south Israel celebrating his birthday on Oct. 7.
“That was 320 days ago. Since then, we live on another planet,” a teary-eyed Goldberg said.
Many in the crowd, who wore “Bring them home” bracelets were in tears as she described her son’s situation and the struggle of not knowing his whereabouts or status. Family photos showing him smiling and happy with his family were displayed as his parents spoke.
Polin told the crowd that the return of the hostages was not a political issue but a “humanitarian issue.”
Polin said that he and his wife have met with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris numerous times at the White House.
“They’re both working tirelessly for a hostage and cease-fire deal that will bring our precious children, mothers, fathers, spouses, grandparents and grandchildren home. And we’ll stop the despair in Gaza,” he said to cheers.
Polin went on to note that there “is a surplus of agony on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East and a competition of pain.”
“There are no winners,” he said.
Polin stressed that the cease-fire deal is “the one thing that can most immediately release pressure and bring calm to the entire region.”
“The time is now,” he said to cheers.
Before they left the stage, Goldberg sent an emotional message to her son.
“Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you. Stay strong, survive,” she said.
(MINT HILL, N.C.) — Former President Donald Trump didn’t mince words Wednesday at a rally in North Carolina following more reports from security officials that Iran has been plotting to assassinate him.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence met with Trump and his campaign Tuesday, according to a spokesman for DNI. While the agency declined to discuss specifics about the meeting, the former president’s campaign said the meeting involved “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”
During his rally in Mint Hill, North Carolina, Trump echoed that statement and sent a stark warning to the country.
“If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case, Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We’re going to blow it to smithereens,” the former president said to cheers. “There would be no more threats.”
Trump blamed the Biden administration for the escalating threats.
“We don’t have that leadership or the necessary people,” he said Wednesday.
The FBI is still investigating the assassination attempt in July during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where one person was killed, and the apparent assassination attempt that took place earlier this month at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida.
Investigators do not have a motive in either of the cases.
Before the Butler shooting, the Secret Service increased Trump’s security due to intelligence indicating there was an Iranian threat to assassinate the former president, sources told ABC News.
Counter snipers were assigned to the Butler rally because of the increased threats from a foreign threat prior to the event, according to a report released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Trump tried to connect the two assassination attempts to foreign connections without any evidence during his rally Wednesday.
“There have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of, and they may or may not involve…Iran. But I don’t really know,” he said.
However, there is no indication that Iran was connected to the suspected shooter in the Butler incident, officials said.
Intelligence officials are briefing senators about foreign threats in general later Wednesday.
Iran and Trump have had a long, contentious history, especially after the January 2020 strike ordered by the former president that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.
In the aftermath of Soleimani’s killing, Iranian officials vowed they would eventually exact revenge.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian reiterated his country’s hatred toward Trump and the U.S. government during an interview in January with ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz.
“That was a big, big mistake made by Trump. That is not something that we will be able to forget,” Amir-Abdollahian said, adding that Tehran still wanted to see “all the people involved” in the strike “brought to justice.”
“What does that mean?” Raddatz asked. “Does that mean killed?”
(BIG RAPIDS, Mich.) — Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance stepped on stage in Big Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday and spoke behind a bulletproof glass during his remarks outside — the first time he’s done so at his own campaign event.
It’s similar to the new safety measures in place for former President Donald Trump’s outdoor rallies following his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
Vance did have bulletproof glass in Asheboro, North Carolina, last week, but that was a joint event with the former president.
Speaking on the economy and jobs at a farm in Michigan, Vance began speaking about the Labor Department overstating its monthly job growth and then accused the Biden-Harris administration of inflating its job numbers to cover up the economy’s problems.
“Now, last week, the biggest heist in American history happened right under Kamala Harris’ nose,” Vance claimed. “Somebody stole 818,000 jobs that she and Tim Walz had been bragging about. Did y’all see that? Where did they go?”
He accused the administration of “cooking the books to hide how bad the economy really is under Kamala Harris.”
When discussing Harris’ record, Vance claimed that Harris doesn’t know what she believes.
“In some ways, I feel bad for Kamala Harris,” he said. “… But I’m not sure that this is a woman who knows what she actually believes.”
Harris, who laid out her economic agenda earlier this month, is still working to define her stances on several key voter issues. The vice president has already distanced herself from some of her former positions laid out in her 2020 presidential bid.
Vance referred back to Harris’ remarks at the Democratic National Convention last week, where she said there would be “consequences” putting Trump back into the Oval Office, asking “is she the vice president or the vice principal?”
Later, speaking to reporters, Vance said those Harris comments don’t resonate with Americans.
“I don’t think that’s persuasive to most Americans and warning them about voting for the wrong person is just, I think it’s ridiculous,” Vance said.
