Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s history of substance abuse is not a secret. But writer Kurt Andersen, who attended Harvard University at the same time as RFK Jr., is speaking out about the time that he says he bought cocaine from him. RFK Jr. recently suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Republican Donald Trump — a choice that Anderson finds questionable considering RFK Jr.'s past. Former President Donald Trump has advocated for executing drug dealers. Meanwhile, RFK Jr. used to be a drug dealer, Anderson alleges.
"Given that you sold cocaine in your youth," Anderson wrote in a piece for The Atlantic, "how do you feel about his advocacy of a regime that might have resulted in your own execution?”
In the article, Anderson explained how he came to learn that RFK Jr. allegedly sold drugs at Harvard. During his freshman year of college, Anderson explained, he tried cocaine one time and wanted some more. A friend told him he could get more cocaine from "a kid in our class who was selling." He would come to find out that the person his friend directed him to was RFK Jr.
The friend seemingly directed Anderson to the right place, as Anderson allegedly went to RFK Jr.'s dorm room and bought cocaine from him. He recalled the moment in the article, writing that RFK Jr. "poured out a line for me to sample."
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RFK Jr.'s history of substance abuse has been brought to light before. In 1983, he was charged with heroin possession. He was 28 years old at the time, and had admitted that he had a "drug problem" that he was "determined to beat," per The New York Times.
RFK Jr.'s substance use was also highlighted in a July 2024 Vanity Fair article. "At Harvard, in the mid-1970s, Kennedy was regularly injecting speedballs, a mixture of heroin and cocaine, and became a pied piper to friends and family, regularly shooting up with his troubled brother David Kennedy, according to multiple friends from the era," Joe Hagan wrote for Vanity Fair.
The reason Anderson decided to share the cocaine story from college, he wrote, is because it seems a bit strange for RFK Jr. to endorse a presidential candidate who has called for executing drug dealers.
"The reason I decided finally to share this anecdote is because of a criminal-justice policy advocated by the presidential candidate he’s just endorsed," Anderson wrote.
Anderson is a known critic of Donald Trump, and also painted an unflattering picture of RFK Jr. through his recent article. Though he finds it strange that RFK Jr. would choose to endorse someone who has advocated for the death penalty for drug dealers, he also highlighted some similarities between the two of them.
"Both are entitled playboy sons of northeastern wealth; both (in Michelle Obama’s words) were 'afforded the grace of failing forward' as misbehaving, underachieving adolescents admitted to Ivy League colleges thanks to 'the affirmative action of generational wealth,'" he wrote.
He described them both as "reckless lifelong adolescents," "attention-craving philanderers and liars" and "jerks."
