Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially announces an independent presidential run calling it 'painful' to leave the Democratic Party as his own family members condemn his decision as 'deeply saddening'

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced an independent presidential bid and was swiftly condemned by several members of his own famous family.

Kennedy, a prominent anti-vaxxer, first announced a White House run in April - saying then that he planned to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination.

On Monday, alongside his actress wife Cheryl Hines, he changed tack - saying he wanted independence from the two political parties. 

'I'm here to declare myself an independent candidate,' Kennedy said in front of several hundred supporters, whose cheers broke up his announcement. 'Candidate for president of the United States of America.' 

In a speech delivered steps away from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Kennedy said he did not come to the decision 'lightly'.

He said: 'It's very painful for me to let go of the party of my uncles, my father, my grandfather and both of my great-grandfathers.'

Four members of his family - siblings Rory, Kerry, Joseph P. Kennedy II and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend - issued a joint statement saying they were against his independent bid, calling the move 'dangerous' and 'deeply saddening.' 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced an independent presidential bid Monday steps away from Independence Hall in Philadelphia

Actress Cheryl Hines introduces her husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who announced an independent presidential bid from Philadelphia Monday 

'The decision of our brother Bobby to run as a third party candidate against Joe Biden is dangerous to our country,' the statement said. 'Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not  share the same values, vision or judgment. Today's announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.'  

Kennedy is the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968, and the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. 

One supporter brought a hand-drawn sign that read, 'I want Camelot!' a reference to the nickname for President John F. Kennedy's administration. 

In his speech the current Kennedy presidential candidate railed against the 'smug elite.' 

He said: 'I can stand before you as every leader should stand before you, free of partisan elite, free from the backroom deals, serving only to my conscience, to my creator and to you.

'There have been independent candidates in this country before. But this time is going to be different, because this time the independent is going to win.'

He pointed out the unpopularity of the 2024 race's two frontrunners - Biden and former President Donald Trump. 

'Three-quarters of Americans believe that President Biden is too old to govern effectively,' he said. 'President Trump faces multiple civil and criminal trials.'

'Both of them have favorability ratings that are deep in negative terrority,' he added. 'That's what two-party politics has given us. And that's why we need to pry loose from the hammerlock of the corrupt powers in Washington, D.C. and make this nation ours again.' 

Kennedy told the crowd that the nation needed to get over its 'addiction to taking sides.' 

'My intention is to spoil it for both of them,' Kennedy later said, pushing back on both Democratic and Republican fears that he could 'spoil' the election for the parties' choices. 

Four of Kennedy's family members - Rory, Kerry, Joseph P. Kennedy II and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend - put out a joint statement calling his announcement of an independent presidential run 'dangerous' and 'deeply saddening' 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (left) gives a kiss to his wife, actress Cheryl Hines (right), known for playing Larry David's wife on Curb Your Enthusiasm 

In his Monday remarks, Kennedy advertised himself as the candidate of American reunification. 

'We are told today that our country is hopelessly divided. The most hateful voices, of course, are always the loudest,' he said. 

He added that there are a 'lot of quiet Americans.' 

'They want us to get along,' he said, adding 'getting us to hate each other is part of the scam.' 

Kennedy expressed support for a number of more traditional conservative positions.

'Six months ago, I thought that an open border was a humanitarian policy and if you were for sealing the border you were probably a xenophobe and maybe a racist,' Kennedy said. 'I was wrong, I was wrong,' he said to a smattering of applause. 

He said that his change of heart didn't come from just listening to the other side, but after traveling to the border region and talking to border patrol officers, local officials and migrants themselves.  

'None of the simplistic narratives actually contain the whole truth,' the candidate observed. 'My promise to you as president, is I'm going to do this on every issue,' he added. 

Kennedy also pledged that he would accept the support from Americans on both sides of major wedge issues. 

'I'm proud to say my supporters include both pro-lifers and pro-choicers, climate optimists and climate skeptics, the vaccinated and unvaccinated,' Kennedy said. 'They include people who have for years been on both sides of the culture war.'

'Why? Because more and more Americans are beginning to understand that for the good of our country, one cannot insist on getting one's way on every issue,' he continued. 'They understand that people can disagree and still respect each other.'   

'You can be pro-choice and not think that pro-lifers are women-hating zealots. You can support the Second Amendment and not think that gun control advocates are totalitarians who hate freedom,' he said. 'It's more than independence from existing parties, it's independence from tribal thinking. It's freedom from the reflex of having to take sides.' 

Kennedy's supporters came from a variety of political backgrounds. 

Dawn Hullings, a 60-year-old registered nurse from New Jersey, said she's a registered Republican and a political moderate.

She said she's in for Kennedy because 'First Amendment rights are very important to me.' 

'I had my own First Amendment rights trampled on. I am a nurse, I was forced to be vaccinated and I haven't felt well since then. And I don't want that to ever happen to anyone again,' Hullings said. 'So that's my perspective on why we're here today.'

Leanne Brown, an 'over 50' environmental attorney from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, said she had been a longtime Republican before changing parties to support Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential runs. 

'I was really into the Bernie program and everything and I just feel really bad that didn't work out,' Brown told DailyMail.com. 'But I'm really excited that there's still hope for somebody taking on the establishment.'  

Another woman, who declined to give her name, said she voted for Democratic President Barack Obama before voting for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020, before switching to team Kennedy. 

Kennedy's announcement started with a snafu, after the candidate, wearing a hot mic, was introduced by his wife, only to realize his speech wasn't with him. 

'I need my speech,' Kennedy could be heard saying. 

Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich - a liberal Ohio lawmaker who ran for president as a Democrat in 2004 and 2008 - is running Kennedy's campaign and appeared onstage alongside with his wife Elizabeth to help introduce the candidate Monday. 

He was also introduced by celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who one male attendee in the audience loudly shouted down as a 'warmonger!' 

Kennedy got in trouble in July for making remarks that were widely condemned as anti-Semitic, as he floated that COVID-19 had been targeted to spare Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish people. 

Philadelphia's Independence Hall can be seen in the background of where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told supporters Monday he would leave the Democratic Party and run for president as an independent 

Signs given out to supporters Monday read: Kennedy 24 - Declare Your Independence,' a sign that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would go ahead and announce an independent presidential bid after not getting much traction among just Democratic primary voters 

Biden had a 51-point lead over Kennedy in the most recent Democratic primary poll, with him never getting over 25 percent of Democrats surveyed. 

However, allies of both Biden and Trump have expressed anxiety behind closed doors about third-party challengers. 

NBC reported last month that Hillary Clinton warned Biden in a pull-aside while she was visiting the White House to take part in the Praemium Imperiale Laureate ceremony that the president needed to take third-party challengers seriously.

Already, Cornel West, a prominent academic who was previously politically aligned with progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, is running to Biden's left - and is expected to appear on the November 2024 ballot as the Green Party candidate. 

The Associated Press reported Monday that those conversations have happened in Trumpworld too. 

'Voters should not be deceived by anyone who pretends to have conservative values. The fact is that RFK has a disturbing background steeped in radical, liberal positions. Whether he's a China sympathizer, denigrating gun owners, promoting business-killing green policies, or supporting on-demand abortion, a RFK candidacy is nothing more than a vanity project for a liberal Kennedy to cash in on his family's name,' Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement to DailyMail.com. 

A shocking Quinnipiac University poll released last week showed that Kennedy was much more popular among Republicans than Democrats - and thus an independent Kennedy bid could potentially pull away support more from Trump than Biden.

Forty-eight percent of Republicans held a favorable view of Kennedy versus just 14 percent of Democrats. 

On the flip side, 57 percent of Democrats held an unfavorable view of Kennedy, while just 18 percent of Republicans said they didn't like him.

Independents viewed Kennedy evenly -  37 percent viewed him favorably, while 37 percent viewed him unfavorably. 

A September NBC News poll showed bad news for Biden when third-party hopefuls were factored in. 

The president was tied with Trump at 46 percent support when just the two of them were in the race. 

Campaign manager, former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (left), appeared with his wife Elizabeth at Monday's event in Philadelphia. Kucinich was a Democratic lawmaker who ran for president as a Democrat in 2004 and 2008  

When a libertarian candidate, a Green Party candidate and a moderate, No Labels candidate were added as choices, Biden lost to Trump 36 percent to 39 percent. 

In that scenario a libertarian candidate would take 5 percent of the electorate, a No Labels candidate would siphon away 5 percent and a Green Party candidate would get the support of 4 percent, the poll found. 

The New York Times reported last month on a previously undisclosed meeting that Kennedy had in July with Angela McArdle, the chair of the Libertarian Party, stoking speculation that he could appear as their candidate on the ballot. 

Ballot access will be Kennedy's biggest challenge, as presidential candidates must meet a number of state-specific filing requirements and deadlines. 

Those hurdles have kept an independent candidate from gaining steam for several decades. 

Being associated with the Libertarian or Green party takes out some of that ballot access legwork. 

Some Trump supporters also had an idea of how Kennedy could appear on the ballot. 

When Kennedy appeared at the Iowa State Fair in August on the same day as Trump, a number of the ex-president's supporters flocked to see the then-Democrat speak. 

'Trump-Kennedy!' one woman yelled - as Trump, the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination, currently doesn't have a running mate.