Kennedy attacks Democratic Party in GOP convention speech

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a roughly 30-minute speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday night, September 10, 2026, sharply criticizing the Democratic Party he left after decades of affiliation. Kennedy, who ran for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination before withdrawing and later endorsing Donald Trump, told the crowd he never expected to address a Republican convention. He invoked the legacy of his father, Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, arguing that the party of his family's era no longer exists. A central theme of the address was Kennedy's claim that Democrats systematically undermined constitutional protections during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the party censored Americans who spoke out against pandemic policies, closed churches, imposed social distancing rules he described as unscientific, and forced medical disclosures, asserting that Democrats obliterated 250 years of constitutional guarantees in a single year.