The journalist who helped break the story about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s affair says she’s stunned it didn’t derail his career and declared the fallout should have gone much further. Veteran reporter Kara Swisher unloaded on RFK Jr. during an interview with The Bulwark’s Tim Miller. She argued Kennedy escaped consequences after his relationship with journalist Olivia Nuzzi became public. And she said that failure still matters today.
Swisher believes the scandal should have stopped Kennedy long before he landed in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Instead, he now holds power while pushing policies that are ‘dangerous’ and ‘anti-science.’ “He’s murdering people with the vaccine stuff, as far as I’m concerned,” Swisher told Miller.
“He’s a predator.” Kara Swisher doesn’t hold back. She rips RFK Jr, calls him a predator, and adds, “He’s murdering people with the vaccine stuff as far as I’m concerned”. pic.twitter.com/dmEJeX84bu
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) December 28, 2025
Earlier this month, Kennedy, 71, oversaw the reversal of a decades-old recommendation that newborns receive a Hepatitis B vaccine at birth. Public health modeling suggests the change could lead to 480 deaths every year. Critics have described the latest move as a sustained campaign against vaccines. Under Kennedy’s leadership, the FDA rolled back COVID-19 vaccine mandates. He is also reportedly pressing to remove recommendations for flu shots, chickenpox vaccines, and other routine immunizations. None of it slowed his political ascent.
The affair that first drew headlines began in 2023, when Nuzzi—then engaged—interviewed Kennedy for a profile. She later lost her job at New York Magazine. Kennedy was married at the time and faced no comparable fallout. He went on to become one of Trump’s closest advisers.“He’s never paid for this,” Swisher said. “Because I guess everyone thinks he’s crazy.”
“I think he hasn’t paid one bit for his predatory—you know, if you look at old stories about him and women and the predatory—he’s a predator.” Claims about Kennedy’s behavior with women long predate the Nuzzi story. His second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, alleged in diaries leaked after her death by self-harm in 2012 that he had at least 37 extramarital affairs. In a 2024 Vanity Fair report, Eliza Cooney, a former Kennedy family babysitter, accused RFK Jr. of s——- assaulting her when she was 23. Kennedy responded publicly. “I am not a church boy,” Kennedy said after apologizing to Cooney.
“I had a very, very rambunctious youth. I have so many skeletons in my closet that if they could all vote I could run for king of the world.”
The accusations have followed him even inside his famous family. In January, his cousin Caroline Kennedy tried to block his confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary. In a letter sent to senators the day before his hearing, she described a pattern of disturbing behavior.
“It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator,” Kennedy wrote.
Olivia Nuzzi breaks down crying and leaves mid-interview when @Timodc asks why she refused to speak up about RFK Jr. even after her gross violations of journalistic ethics came to light: pic.twitter.com/35zQW5AGGR
— Brendan Hartnett 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@BrendanHartnett) December 3, 2025
“Even before he fills this job, his constant denigration of our healthcare system and the conspiratorial half-truths he has told about vaccines, including in connection with Samoa’s deadly 2019 measles outbreak, have cost lives,” she added.
According to Swisher, the record should have been disqualifying on its own. She said the focus on the affair missed the larger issue. “I feel like it’s crazy that people don’t care what his role is [in the affair],” Swisher said. “Of all the people, he’s the one that should pay much more of a price, especially given his history with doing stuff like this.”
