Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has posted a video on social media in which he admits that he dumped a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park in 2014.

The clip, posted to his X account on Sunday, shows him with controversial US comedian Roseanne Barr as he describes bizarre circumstances that led to an incident that mystified New Yorkers 10 years ago. Mr Kennedy said a woman had hit and killed the bear with her car when he was driving behind her outside of the city, and he put it in his van with the intention of skinning the animal and harvesting its meat.

It appears he shared the anecdote to get ahead of an upcoming story in The New Yorker magazine.

The Kennedy campaign and the New Yorker did not respond to requests for comment. Seated with rolled-up sleeves at a table covered with food, Mr Kennedy tells Ms Barr in the video that he was driving to meet a group of people to go falconing near Goshen, New York, 10 years ago when the bear was killed. He says he pulled over to put the bear in his vehicle.

“I was going to skin the bear - and it was in very good condition - and I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator,” he says. “And you can do that in New York state: Get a bear tag for a roadkill bear.”

New York state does allow people to take bears killed on roads, but the law stipulates that a person has to notify law enforcement or the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to acquire such a tag. Mr Kennedy does not appear to have done that.

Instead, he says he continued to his falconing venture, which went late into the evening. He says he went on to a dinner reservation he had at Peter Luger Steakhouse in New York City, about 75 miles (121km) south of Goshen. “At the end of the dinner, it was late and I realised I couldn’t go home,” Mr Kennedy says. “I had to go to the airport, and the bear was in my car, and I didn’t want to leave the bear in my car because that would have been bad.”

That is when, he says, it occurred to him that there had been a series of bicycle accidents in New York and that he had an old bicycle in his car.

He tells Ms Barr that he had the idea of staging a bike accident with the bear carcass in Central Park, which several drunk people with him heartily endorsed. He emphasises that he had not been drinking.

“So we did that and we thought it would be amusing for whoever found it or something,” he says. “The next day… it was on every television station. It was a front page of every paper and I turned on the TV and there was like a mile of yellow tape and 20 cop cars, there were helicopters flying, and I was like, ‘Oh my god. What did I do?’”

    • tal@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      31
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      5 months ago

      It might be a well-tuned campaign strategy.

      https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article289366908.html

      Donald Trump’s entry into politics marked a shift from traditional political engagement to what can be described as “politainment” — the blending of politics and entertainment. Trump’s background as a reality TV star and his penchant for dramatic, often controversial statements turned political events into spectacles that captured widespread public attention. This shift made politics more accessible and engaging to a broader audience, transforming it into a form of entertainment that people followed with the same fervor as a reality TV show.

      Let’s say that Trump has discovered that what a certain chunk of the electorate actually wants is a circus. Okay. You place a larger circus on the table.

  • MagicShel@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    71
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    He emphasises that he had not been drinking.

    That’s not the flex he thinks it is. I think it’s much worse to imagine someone completely sober thinking that was going to be a great idea.

  • Godric@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    68
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    You know what? The story is fucking hilarious and wild, I fuck with it. This is somehow both the most redneck and silver spoon bougie shit I’ve ever seen

    While driving for a casual falconing trip (bougie), he finds some fresh roadkill and decides he’s going to stuff it in his car and take it and carve it up for food (redneck).

    He goes late, realizes he’s not making it home (both). Has a hilarious thought, also has with the exact random shit in his car to make that reality, acts on it (redneck)

    A dead bear found in the middle of NYC with the implication that a bicyclist ran it over is fantastic, holy fuck XD

    • HonkyTonkWoman@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      5 months ago

      If you haven’t heard, Trae Crowder & Corey Ryan Forrester, 2 comedians from the WellRed Comedy tour, have a podcast called Puttin On Airs.

      They talk specifically about the Venn Diagram that exists for a number a topics, where the overlap between the fancy & trashy experiences of said topics is rather hilarious.

      This story will likely be covered soon.

      • smort@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        5 months ago

        Adam Carolla had a bit like this on Loveline way back. Outdoor showers, multiple multiple old cars, and big family hunting trips were on his list of “rich man, poor man”

        (Carolla’s a dick now, but I listened a lot back in the day)

      • androogee (they/she)@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        5 months ago

        Oh my God they dusted the bicycle for prints.

        This story is nuts in 2024, when we’ve all been immersed in insanity for years.

        If a fucking Kennedy had been arrested for faking a bear murder in 2014, the world would have fallen into the fucking sun.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    55
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    Wow, what a totally normal display of rational decision making.

    Has anyone checked to see if he is just Sacha Baron Cohen in a sophisticated mask?

    • SuckMyWang@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      5 months ago

      Good chance he’s full of shit and what really happened was more criminal so he had too come up with an even more batshit story to get himself out of it

        • jaybone@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          5 months ago

          And wtf is this circus van he’s driving around in with fuckin bears and bicycles and shit.

          Maybe he robbed a band of traveling carnies in a cocaine fueled rage because the space lizards told him to.

    • ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      5 months ago

      I know this is exactly the kind of calculated, rational decision making I want from the guy with his finger on the button that ends the world.

  • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    32
    ·
    5 months ago

    Behind the Bastards just did a four part podcast on him. Let’s just say: this likely wasn’t the weirdest thing that he was involved in that week.

      • Doubleohdonut@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        5 months ago

        Holy shit has John Oliver pranked yanks by popularising London Weekend Television? Or am I just the last person to make this connection? 😁

    • Dud@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      5 months ago

      The word carcass has been attributed to him in more sentences than an orc warlord.

      • cmbabul@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        5 months ago

        The amount of times Robert and Cody said the word carcass in those episodes was extremely high

          • cmbabul@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            5 months ago

            At this point it’s kinda rare I get surprised or aghast at shit I hear on BtB but that was a bizarre one

            • Dud@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              5 months ago

              I did enjoy the near ego-dearh Cody went through towards the tail end of episode 3 and well into 4. I’ve never heard someone’s voice pleading please no more so strongly.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          5 months ago

          I’m in Indiana. We don’t have bears, but we have plenty of dead deer by the side of the road and plenty of rural folk. I have yet to see someone pick one up and put it in their car for later.

        • cmbabul@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          5 months ago

          From Georgia… is there a non hillbilly part of Appalachia? There might be less hillbilly parts but it’s pretty ubiquitous in my experience

          • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            5 months ago

            I mean, I live in a part that’s more normal than the place I used to live lol. But my normal could also still be hella hillbilly to someone else lol

            • cmbabul@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              5 months ago

              Fair wasn’t trying to hate, I just know the region lol, nothing wrong with hillbilly folks as a rule, just some of em are well you know

  • Zugyuk@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    34
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    5 months ago

    Mr Kennedy said a woman had hit and killed the bear with her car when he was driving behind her

    He definitely hit that bear

      • No_Eponym@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        Hopefully the kind of clowns that previously voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and are still alive today.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    Imma keep saying it. We need more mental institutions in this country. We have the means and the need. Just need the will and the wads