Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, one of the nine surviving children of the late Robert F. Kennedy, was at the family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, with a gaggle of his relatives and siblings last August when the California Board of Parole Hearings unexpectedly recommended the release of the man who assassinated his father, Sirhan Sirhan. …
Yesterday afternoon, most of RFK’s surviving children finally exhaled when California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has described the former attorney general, senator from New York, and anti-war 1968 presidential candidate as his political hero, announced he had exercised his authority to reverse the board’s ruling and deny parole to Sirhan. In a Los Angeles Times op-ed explaining his decision, Newsom highlighted Sirhan’s role as a “potent symbol of political violence” and his refusal “to accept responsibility for the crimes.”
The possibility of parole for Sirhan has always been intensely emotional and painful for most of RFK’s surviving children. Yet the real issue Newsom confronted had less to do with what parole would mean for the family than what it might mean for the country. The United States now faces a grim trend in which violence, threats, and intimidation rooted in former President Donald Trump’s political movement are spiking in communities across the country. …
Reuters recently cataloged more than 800 threats of violence from Trump supporters against election officials in 12 states. Not just Democrats have been targeted: Multiple elected Republicans who criticized Trump or voted to impeach him have reported similar intimidation. Threats have multiplied as well, again predominantly from the right, against public-health officials, school-board members, and municipal officials over masking, shutdowns, and other policies related to controlling the coronavirus pandemic. CONTINUED
Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic
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