RFK's daughter vows to fight potential parole of father's assassin with 'everything I've got'

In an interview on NewsNation Now on Friday night, Kerry Kennedy, one of Robert F. Kennedy's nine surviving children, expressed her disappointment with a California parole board's decision to recommend parole for Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of killing her father, who was then a Democratic senator representing New York and in the midst of a presidential campaign, in Los Angeles in 1968. "I can tell you, I'm going to fight this with everything I've got," Kerry Kennedy, a human rights lawyer, told host Ashleigh Banfield.

Kennedy and six of her other siblings released a statement criticizing the recommendation. "We adamantly oppose the parole and release of Sirhan Sirhan and are shocked by a ruling that we believe ignores the standards for parole of a confessed, first-degree murderer in the state of California," it reads.

Two other siblings, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Douglas Kennedy, are supportive of the recommendation, with the latter saying he's "grateful" to see Sirhan "as a human being worthy of compassion and love." As for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kerry Kennedy noted that he has pushed numerous conspiracy theories in recent years, including many about COVID-19 vaccines. "Why in the world anyone would take him seriously is just beyond comprehension," she said.

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Sirhan's parole is not automatic — the recommendation was made by a two-person panel, but now the entire board has a few months to review the decision. After that it gets passed to California's governor who can sign off on it, reverse it, or modify it. Kerry Kennedy is hoping that the incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) — who she indicated considers her father a hero of his — will shut it down, though he is facing a recall election at the moment. Watch the full interview below.