Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is raising eyebrows again after he confessed to disposing of a dead bear carcass in New York's Central Park a decade ago.
In a three-minute video shared on social media, the former environmental lawyer can be seen telling comedian Roseanne Barr the story about how a 2014 trip in upstate New York led to a dead bear in his car and then ultimately under a bush with a bike in the central Manhattan park.
Kennedy said he was driving to meet a group of people falconing in New York's Hudson Valley when a woman driving in front of him fatally struck the bear cub with her vehicle.
"So, I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was going to skin the bear and it was in very good condition," Kennedy said. "And I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator, and you can do that in New York, you can get a bear tag for roadkill bear."
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However, the bear apparently never made it back to Kennedy's home. He went on to say that — with the dead animal still in his car — a long day of falconry turned into a dinner in the city, which went late. That's when Kennedy realized he had to hurry to catch a flight, but still needed to do something with the bear carcass.
"I didn't want to leave the bear in the car because that would've been bad," he said. That's when, according to Kennedy, "the little bit of redneck in me" gave him an idea.
He recalled there had been several news stories at the time about bicyclists being involved in crashes.
"I wasn't drinking, of course, but people were drinking with me who thought this was a good idea," Kennedy continued. "I had an old bike in my car that somebody had asked me to get rid of and I said, 'Let's go put the bear in central park and we'll make it look like he got hit by a bike.'"
He went on to say, "everybody thought, 'That's a great idea!'"
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However, by the next day, the mysterious fatal bear bike crash story made national headlines after the animal was discovered by two New York dog walkers. Law enforcement then determined the bear had likely been struck by a vehicle outside the park and confiscated the bicycle to dust it for fingerprints.
"I was worried because my prints were all over that bike," Kennedy said as Roseanne Barr and others in the room laughed.
However, nothing happened. The story ultimately died down and the mystery would go unsolved for the next decade, until Kennedy said Sunday he wanted to come clean ahead of an expected exposé in The New Yorker magazine.
"The New Yorker somehow found out about it and they just, they're gonna do a big article on me and that's one of the articles," he said.
"Looking forward to seeing how you spin this one, @NewYorker," Kennedy captioned the video.
The New Yorker did publish the piece Monday morning and the bear story was featured alongside a photo of Kennedy holding his hand inside the animal's bloodied mouth with a whimsical scowl on his face.
"Maybe that's where I got my brain worm," he jokingly told the publication.
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The dramatic story comes as Kennedy's presidential campaign has faltered in recent months amid rumors he was considering dropping out of the race and planning to endorse former President Donald Trump. However, he told Scripps News on July 26 that he "never intended to get out of the campaign" and called the reports "fake news."
"I have no plans to endorse any other candidate. I'm in it to win it," Kennedy said. "Our donations are way up, our social engagement up a thousand percent since President Biden dropped out. Our volunteers are up, our email engagement is up. We have tremendous momentum right now and we intend to win this campaign."
Kennedy has kept up an active presence on social media and continues to hold campaign events across the country. However, the independent candidate has still not managed to garner more than single-digit support in various national election polls, and faces an uphill battle with the election now less than 100 days away.
