Fox News host Jesse Watters questioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about a widely reported anecdote concerning a dead raccoon during an interview on "Jesse Watters Primetime." The exchange occurred as Watters concluded a discussion with Kennedy about regenerative farming and the Presidential Fitness Test.
Watters' pointed question, "Will you leave the raccoons alone?" referenced a claim detailed in Isabel Vincent's biography, "RFK Jr.: The Fall and Rise." According to the book, Kennedy in 2001 allegedly removed the penis from a roadkill raccoon to study its anatomy. The biography quotes a diary entry attributed to Kennedy stating, "I was standing in front of my parked car on I-684 cutting the penis out of a road killed raccoon, thinking about how weird some of my family members have turned out to be." The entry also noted that his children waited in the car during the incident.
Vincent, speaking to The Independent in April, suggested Kennedy's actions stemmed from his childhood ambition to become a veterinarian and his early work at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. "He’s got a great love and interest in animals and a freezer full of roadkill, I’m sure, where he studies it," Vincent explained.
Kennedy has not directly confirmed or denied the story. When asked by TMZ in April about the alleged raccoon specimen, he reportedly chuckled and continued walking. During the Fox News interview, when asked by Watters if he would "leave the raccoons alone," Kennedy responded that they were "safe for the moment."