Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was widely mocked after he published a post on X on Labor Day asking people to share what their first job was—a rather odd question from a man who faces regular criticism for being utterly unqualified for his role overseeing the nation’s public health apparatus.
Kennedy wrote the following on X:
"Happy Labor Day! What was your first job?"
You can see his post below.
But Kennedy's post soon backfired after someone resurfaced a 2024 Atlantic article headlined, “RFK Jr. Was My Drug Dealer.” The magazine's editorial staff noted that Kennedy did not respond to the magazine’s request for comment.
In the piece, author Kurt Andersen recounts buying cocaine from Kennedy while both were at Harvard in 1972. Kennedy has previously spoken openly about his history of drug addiction and once claimed that using drugs made him perform better in school.
Andersen wrote:
“The dealer was Bobby Kennedy. I’d never met him. I got in touch; he said sure, come over."
"He poured out a line for me to sample, and handed me an inch-and-a-half length of plastic drinking straw. I snorted. We chatted for a minute. I paid him, I believe, $40 in cash. It was a lot of money, the equivalent of $300 today.”
The story added to the controversy surrounding Kennedy—a conspiracy theorist and leader of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement—who for years struggled with substance abuse.
Notably, Kennedy's first cousin Caroline Kennedy later accused him of leading other family members “down the path of drug addiction,” calling him a “predator.” Kennedy continued using heroin and cocaine at Harvard and developed a reputation as both a “pied piper” and a “drug dealer" per Anderson and other sources.
Not a good look for the nation's leading public health official, right?
Kennedy was criticized almost immediately.
This is a classic case of "think before you tweet."