Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. demanded all documents regarding former President John F. Kennedy’s death be released on the 60th anniversary of his uncle’s assassination.
Kennedy announced his campaign is launching a petition to demand that President Joe Biden uphold his promise and publicly release all of the documents related to his uncle’s assassination. The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 required all of the documents to “be eventually disclosed” to inform the public on the historic tragedy that occurred on November 22, 1963, unless doing so would be a national security threat.
The deadline came to be set for October 2017, in which former President Donald Trump released 2,800 of the 3,100 classified documents related to the assassination due to national security concerns. President Joe Biden later issued a 2021 Memorandum to direct an “intensive 1-year review” of the redactions. His executive order directed the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to review these documents until May 1, 2023, and any document requested for non-disclosure beyond June 30, 2023, would be “limited to the absolute minimum.” (RELATED: Biden Orders Released Of Unredacted JFK Assassination Files)
We can redeem my uncle’s vision of our nation as an exemplar of peace, freedom, and service to humankind; his death will not have been in vain. #Kennedy24https://t.co/Ii7cWYUeeA
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 22, 2023
Kennedy accused Trump and Biden of refusing to “show the American public” what truly happened on that fateful day.
“As the petition explains, the 1992 Kennedy Records Assassination Act mandated the release of all records related to the JFK assassination by 2017. Trump refused to do it. Biden refused to do it. Kennedy asks, “What is so embarrassing that they’re afraid to show the American public 60 years later?” the Kennedy campaign said.
“Trust in government is at an all-time low,” the statement continued. “Releasing the full, unredacted historical records will help to restore that trust. In the spirit of transparency, in the spirit of democracy, the Kennedy campaign asks Americans to call upon President Biden to obey the 1992 act and release the Kennedy assassination documents to the public.”
Kennedy also said his uncle upheld an abandoned vision of maintaining peace in the U.S., saying the country has since “maintained a militia empire” and allowed the economy to deteriorate.
“Of all the legacies that my uncle left for our country, there is one that has not yet been fulfilled. During his term in office, he upheld a vision of America as a nation of peace, a vision that was abandoned after his death. For the next 60 years, we maintained a military empire, squandering trillions of dollars as our economy hollowed out and our health and infrastructure decayed,” Kennedy said.
“My promise to the American people is that I will put us back on the road to peace that JFK led us toward when, shortly before his death, he issued a national security order to withdraw American advisers from Vietnam. We will instead take a path back toward peace and prosperity for our country,” he added.
Kennedy was nine years old at the time of his uncle’s assassination, which happened during a campaign event in Dallas, Texas. He instantly died from a bullet wound to the head while sitting inside a limousine next to his wife, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.