Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a posh man of many colours and contradictions—a person who concurrently says he cares deeply in regards to the surroundings however who additionally enjoys working for Donald Trump (a recognized fossil gas lover). He’s a person who likes to current himself as an affable everyman who additionally apparently loves storing roadkill in his freezer and decapitating beached whales. He’s additionally a person who occurs to have been married for fairly a very long time however who, in response to a latest tell-all e-book from a disgraced journalist, engaged in a secretive tryst, throughout which he laid naked his innermost self.
Sure, by now you’ve absolutely heard the drama surrounding Olivia Nuzzi, the previous New York journal politics reporter, and Kennedy, who’re alleged to have had a chaste affair whereas Nuzzi was protecting his political marketing campaign final yr. Nuzzi has managed to spin what—for many different journalists—would have been a humiliating profession dying knell right into a e-book deal. Her new tome, American Canto, is partially about her relationship with Kennedy. Whereas it’s not out but (it’s popping out subsequent month), it has just lately been previewed by choose publications. The e-book seems to disclose admissions Kennedy made to her in non-public, together with that he had admitted to utilizing brain-warping medication and in addition claimed that the useless worm in his mind was not truly a worm.
The drug declare comes from the New York Instances, which just lately profiled Nuzzi, in addition to her e-book. Within the profile, Nuzzi claims that whereas they had been involved, Kennedy admitted to doing DMT, a psychedelic drug that may produce intense auditory and visible hallucinations. The paper notes:
She writes that regardless of being “sober” for many years, Kennedy informed her that he nonetheless makes use of psychedelics, and even smoked dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, a strong drug on which individuals are recognized to have what really feel like near-death experiences. She informed him she “preferred uppers. I informed him that I took Adderall.”
The DMT declare is considerably becoming and maybe not too stunning for Kennedy, given his curiosity in fringe well being remedies. On the similar time, it additionally makes a certain quantity of political sense. Weird as it could appear, the decision to legalize psychedelics has been coming from the political proper in recent times. Conservatives need to get bizarre with legalizing mind-melding medication, and RFK has been seen as a pure candidate for advancing that mission. This summer season, it was reported that Kennedy was “ramping up government-run scientific research” on psychedelics.
“These are individuals who badly want some sort of remedy; nothing else is working for them,” Kennedy mentioned at a Home listening to in June. “This line of therapeutics has super benefit if given in a scientific setting. And we’re working very onerous to make it possible for that occurs inside 12 months.”
At one other level in American Canto, a part of which was just lately printed by Self-importance Truthful (Nuzzi is now an editor there), Kennedy is alleged to have informed her that he didn’t even have a worm in his mind. The worm in query was initially reported by the New York Instances final yr. Journalists found that, in 2010, a parasite had eaten a part of RFK’s gray matter and subsequently died. In keeping with Nuzzi’s e-book, nevertheless, Kennedy informed her this was not the case. The passage, which has induced chortles all through the web, reads:
I didn’t like to consider it simply as later I’d not like to consider the worm in his mind that different folks discovered so humorous. I beloved his mind. I hated the thought of an intruder therein. Others thought he was a madman; he was not fairly mad the best way they thought, however I beloved the non-public ways in which he was mad. I beloved that he was insatiable in all methods, as if he would swallow up the entire world simply to realize it higher if he may. He made me snort, however I winced when he joked in regards to the worm. “Child, don’t fear,” he mentioned. “It’s not a worm.” A health care provider he trusted had reviewed the scans of his mind obtained by The New York Instances, he mentioned, and concluded that the shadowy determine was doubtless not a parasite in any respect. He sighed. It was too late to intrude with what had already vaulted from the sphere of meme to the sphere of screwy legend, however at the least I didn’t have to fret in regards to the worm that was not a worm in his mind.
So, yeah, wow. Actually, some poetic phrases for the worm. Nuzzi has maintained that she and Kennedy by no means bodily consummated the connection, and that the dalliance was solely over the telephone and the web (it has been known as a “sexting affair”). Kennedy, in the meantime, has denied any relationship together with her. Kennedy’s spouse, Cheryl Hines, reportedly spoke out about Nuzzi’s claims that the 2 had been in love and that Kennedy wished her to have his little one, telling sources that Nuzzi was a “fucking liar.”
Over the previous few days, Nuzzi has additionally been accused of getting an affair with one other interview topic, Mark Sanford, a politician from South Carolina. That declare comes from her former fiancé/former Politico reporter Ryan Lizza, who wrote about it for his impartial outlet Telos. Gizmodo reached out to the HHS for remark. We additionally reached out to Condé Nast, the father or mother firm of Self-importance Truthful.
