Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. answered a nearly decade-old question Thursday about who left a dead bear cub in Central Park.
In October 2014, a dead bear cub was left underneath an old bicycle in Central Park in New York City, according to CBS News. Kennedy confessed Thursday that he left behind the cub after a New Yorker Magazine fact checker called to verify the information for an upcoming story, the outlet reported.
In a video shared on X, formerly Twitter, Kennedy recounted the incident with the caption, “Looking forward to seeing how you spin this one, @NewYorker…”
Kennedy said he was driving on his way to go falconing when a woman in a van in front of his struck and killed the bear. (RELATED: RFK Jr. Apologizes For Leaked Trump Phone Call).
“So, I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was going to skin the bear, and it was in very good condition, and I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator,” Kennedy said. “And you can do that in New York state. You can get a bear tag for roadkill bear.”
The deceased bear remained in his car as he went about his day with friends. After falconing, Kennedy returned to New York City for a dinner reservation that ran late. Kennedy realized he didn’t have the time to make it to his home in Westchester as he was due to catch a flight at the airport.
Kennedy said he “didn’t want to leave the bear in the car because that would have been bad.”
He noted how, at the time of the incident, there were numerous reports of bike accidents, and he had an old bicycle in his car “that somebody asked [him] to get rid of.”
“I said let’s go put the bear in Central Park and we’ll make it look like it got hit by a bike,” Kennedy stated.
Looking forward to seeing how you spin this one, @NewYorker… pic.twitter.com/G13taEGzba
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 4, 2024
Kennedy explained he was shocked at how much media attention the bear incident received.
“And I was like, ‘Oh my God, what did I do?’ And then they were, there was some people on TV and Tyvek suits with gloves on lifting up the bike and they’re saying they’re gonna take this up to Albany to get it fingerprinted,” he said. “And I was worried because my prints were all over that bike.”
Kennedy said he expects the New Yorker article, which has not yet been released as of Thursday night, to be a “bad story.”
