(Scypre.com) – Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently confessed to abandoning a young dead bear in Central Park, an incident that he initially planned to handle differently. In a three-minute video posted on X, Kennedy detailed the event that The New Yorker magazine had uncovered, though the exact date remains unspecified.
Kennedy recounted that while driving north of New York City for a falconry outing with friends, he witnessed a woman in a van accidentally hit and kill a young bear. “I pulled over and picked up the bear, placing it in the back of my van with the intention of skinning it for meat,” Kennedy said in the video, conversing with Roseanne Barr. He noted that he was running late for a dinner in New York City, leading him to return with the bear still in his vehicle.
His schedule forced him to drive straight to the city without stopping at his Westchester County home. Kennedy then recalled devising a plan involving the bear and an old bicycle he had in his car. “I wasn’t drinking, but those with me thought it was a good idea,” Kennedy explained. “We decided to place the bear in Central Park and make it appear as though it had been hit by a bike.” The plan, intended as a prank, instead attracted significant media attention.
Kennedy did not provide a specific date for the incident, but The New Yorker reported it occurred in the fall of 2014, coinciding with media coverage of a bear cub found in Central Park that year. The magazine described Kennedy encountering the bear carcass in upstate New York, placing it in his car, and later showing it to his friends. A photo published by The New Yorker shows Kennedy holding the bear, fingers in its mouth, with a grimace on his face.
After the falconry outing, Kennedy drove to Central Park, where the bear was discovered the next day by two women walking their dogs. Neither Kennedy’s campaign nor The New Yorker responded to immediate requests for comment.
Kennedy anticipated the story’s negative reception, predicting in the video, “It’s going to be a bad story,” amidst laughter. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation directed NBC News’ request for comment to the NYPD, which did not respond immediately.
Following The New Yorker’s report, Kennedy criticized the media in a post on X, accusing it of focusing on trivial matters to undermine certain political figures. He expressed frustration that the press, once considered the “fourth estate” for its independence, now seemed unified in highlighting inconsequential stories. Kennedy lamented that while the media focuses on such stories, significant issues like unaffordable groceries, partisan divides, community crises, and global tensions go underreported. “Let’s hold our media to a higher standard,” he urged.