Ben Stiller poked fun at Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, while speaking at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Stiller, who was hosting the Anti-Defamation League’s Concert Against Hate, joked per Page Six: “Tonight we’re going to raise the roof on the Kennedy Center before it’s renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center for Animal Disposal!”
The jibe references a string of animal-related controversies that RFK Jr found himself embroiled in, after admitting to beheading a dead whale and dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park.
Elsewhere in the show, Stiller referenced rising anti-semitism around the world and joked: “In fact, I was worried about hosting this show — because people might realize I’m Jewish.”
He continued: “For 30 years I’ve been pretty discreet about my heritage, disappearing into a diverse array of characters like Chaz Tennenbaum, Ted Stroehmann, Josh Kovaks, Josh Srebnick, Matthew Myerwictz, Roger Greenberg, Ruben Feffer, Gaylord Focker, and Rabbi Jacob Schram.”
As the crowd applauded, Stiller added: “Derek Zoolander apparently changed his name.”
In August, Kennedy bizarrely confessed to dumping a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park a decade ago.
In a three-minute clip he posted to X, Kennedy told actor Roseanne Barr he had set out from New York City in October 2014 to spend a weekend falconing with friends in upstate New York. On his way, Kennedy saw a motorist ahead of him hit the bear with her car. The cub was killed instantly, he said.
Kennedy said he then pulled over and retrieved the dead animal before loading it into his own vehicle. He explained he was going to skin the bear and put the meat in his fridge. Under state law, Kennedy was legally able to pick up the creature, although he would have needed to notify the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to obtain the necessary tag.
Kennedy then said he went to dinner with friends before realizing he didn’t have a plan for the bear carcass. He said it was at this moment that he landed on the idea of leaving the bear cub’s body in Central Park next to an old bicycle he had in his vehicle as part of a ploy to make the cub’s death look like an accident involving a cyclist.
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RFK Jr’s animal scandals represent just a fraction of the many controversies he’s been involved in.
The 70-year-old has also spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and allegedly engaged in an online relationship with a political reporter despite being married, among other incidents.
Now, he’s Trump’s pick to lead the nation in a mission to “make America healthy again.”
