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Media outlets today reported that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to announce he will run as an Independent for president of the U.S.

According to Mediaite, which broke the story late this afternoon, a “campaign insider” revealed that Kennedy will make the announcement on Oct. 9 in Philadelphia, because he “feels that the DNC [Democratic National Committee] is changing the rules to exclude his candidacy so an independent run is the only way to go.”

Kennedy is the founder and chairman on leave from Children’s Health Defense. He announced his run for the Democratic nomination for president on April 20, in Boston, with the promise to “reduce chronic disease in children.”

Kennedy launched his campaign with a two-hour speech that covered a wide range of issues — everything from his family’s history in American politics, to the military-industrial complex, to widespread censorship, and to the attacks on civil liberties, the environment and public health.

Throughout his speech, Kennedy frequently referred to how all of these issues directly affect children.

He reminded the audience of the obligation America’s leaders have to protect children — from toxic pesticides, from dangerous pharmaceuticals and from the “corrupt merger of state and corporate power” that rob future generations of their health and of their ability to achieve financial security.

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Kennedy, who has a long and successful career as an environmental attorney, decried the attack on the environment by corporate polluters. He told the crowd:

“If we want to meet our obligation as a generation, as a civilization, as a nation, which is to create communities for our children that provide them with the same opportunities for dignity and enrichment and prosperity and good health as the communities that our parents gave us, we’ve got to start by protecting our environmental infrastructure.

“If we want to measure our economy … we ought to be measuring it based upon how it produces jobs and the dignity of jobs over the generations, and how it preserves the value of the assets of our community.”

He also had harsh words for the pandemic lockdown policies, which he said were “a war on American children,” citing a Brown University study that found toddlers lost 22 IQ points.

The Defender was unable to reach Kennedy for comment by press time but will have more details as the story develops.

The Defender on occasion posts content related to Children’s Health Defense’s nonprofit mission that features Mr. Kennedy’s views on the issues CHD and The Defender regularly cover. In keeping with Federal Election Commission rules, this content does not represent an endorsement of Mr. Kennedy who is on leave from CHD and is seeking the Democratic nomination for president of the U.S.