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Max Kennedy Jr.

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Max Kennedy Jr.
Born
Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy Jr.

(1993-09-18) September 18, 1993 (age 31)
EducationHarvard University (BA)
Occupationpolitical organizer
Political partyDemocratic
FatherMax Kennedy
FamilyKennedy

Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy Jr. (born September 18, 1993) is an American government volunteer, political organizer, and member of the Kennedy family. He is the whistleblower who sent a complaint to the United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform regarding the White House Coronavirus Task Force, which he worked on as a volunteer.[1] Kennedy worked for the Democratic Party on their 2020 campaign efforts.

Biography

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Kennedy was born on September 18, 1993, to Victoria Anne Strauss and Max Kennedy.[2] He is a grandson of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy.[3] Kennedy grew up in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, near the Kennedy Compound. As a teenager he volunteered with Riverkeeper.[4] He graduated from Harvard University in 2016.[5] After graduating, he did part time work at consulting and investment firms and had planned to take the LSAT in March 2020 and apply to law schools, until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.[5][6] A lifelong Democrat, Kennedy felt torn about volunteering to work in the Trump Administration, but decided the job "didn't seem political."[5][3][7] He joined the White House Coronavirus Task Force's Supply-Chain Task Force, led by President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, that formed to provide protective equipment to places where outbreaks of the virus had occurred.[5]

On his first day as a task force volunteer, Kennedy arrived at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters and joined a team of a dozen volunteers, all in their twenties.[5] Kennedy, who took the position with the intention of being support staff for the task force, told The New Yorker that he and the other volunteers were the official task force team for the U.S. Federal Government.[5][8] He and other volunteers were responsible for obtaining medical supplies using their own personal computers and private email accounts.[5][9] Kennedy was pressured by Brad Smith, an appointee directing the task force, to create a model with false information on the projected number of coronavirus fatalities in the United States.[5][10] Kennedy declined to perform the assignment.[5] Kennedy stated that the task force was instructed to prioritize requests from the President's supporters and friends, including Jeanine Pirro.[5][3] They were also instructed to direct millions of dollars' worth of medical supplies to five pre-selected distributors.[5] In April 2020, despite having signed a nondisclosure agreement, he sent an anonymous complaint to the United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform detailing failures and "dangerous incompetence" in the Trump Administration's response to the pandemic.[5][11][12] Kennedy referred to the Trump Administration's coronavirus response as "family office meets organized crime, melded with Lord of the Flies" and called it "a government of chaos."[5][3] He quit the task force later that month and now works for the Democratic Party, and helped on the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign.[5][11][13]

Kennedy is featured in Alex Gibney's 2020 documentary Totally Under Control.[5][14][15]

References

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  1. ^ Ross, Jamie (September 21, 2020). "Robert F. Kennedy's Grandson Comes Out as Jared's PPE Task Force Whistleblower". The Daily Beast.
  2. ^ Petty, Amber (April 24, 2017). "The Kennedy grandchildren have grown up to be gorgeous". TheList.com.
  3. ^ a b c d Foussianes, Chloe (September 22, 2020). "Robert F. Kennedy's Grandson Was the Whistleblower for Jared Kushner's COVID-19 Taskforce". Town & Country.
  4. ^ "2010 Volunteers of the Year" (PDF). Tennessee Riverkeeper Newsletter. Autumn 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Mayer, Jane (19 September 2020). "A Young Kennedy, in Kushnerland, Turned Whistle-Blower". The New Yorker.
  6. ^ "Coronavirus task force whistleblower says volunteers had to pay special attention to Fox News host's supply requests". theweek.com. September 21, 2020.
  7. ^ "Whistleblower on Jared Kushner's coronavirus task force admits he was pressured to 'fudge' death data model". The Independent. September 23, 2020. Archived from the original on 2022-05-12.
  8. ^ Haylock, Zoe (October 13, 2020). "Totally Under Control Clip: How Volunteers Ran Jared Kushner's COVID Task Force". Vulture.
  9. ^ Papenfuss, Mary (September 22, 2020). "RFK's Grandson Blew The Whistle On Kushner's 'Lord Of The Flies' COVID Task Force: Report". HuffPost.
  10. ^ Baker, Sinéad. "A Kennedy who worked on Jared Kushner's COVID-19 task force said he was asked to distort a coronavirus prediction to make the outbreak seem less bad". Business Insider.
  11. ^ a b "RFK's grandson blows the whistle on US government's COVID supply chain task force". IrishCentral.com. September 25, 2020.
  12. ^ "Whistleblower on Jared Kushner's task force says he was told to "fudge" coronavirus death data". Salon. September 22, 2020.
  13. ^ "Masks, No, Body Armor, Yes; CDC Nixes Trick-or-Treating; Pandemic Loans Worry Rural Hospitals". www.medpagetoday.com. September 23, 2020.
  14. ^ Saperstein, Pat (October 13, 2020). "'Totally Under Control' Director Alex Gibney on How NDAs and Political Posturing Devastated America's Pandemic Response".
  15. ^ "Documentary 'Totally Under Control' Recounts Bungled Response To COVID-19". www.wbur.org. 14 October 2020.


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