If anyone still doubted that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might be one of the most daring and coolest figures in American politics, his latest viral video probably settled the debate.
The Health and Human Services secretary posted footage Tuesday showing himself grabbing two black North American racer snakes with his bare hands while standing on Dr. Oz’s patio — all while his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, reacted with a mixture of panic, disbelief, and what looked like complete exhaustion from years of watching Bobby Kennedy do Bobby Kennedy things.
“Honey, honey… why?” Hines yelled as RFK Jr. cornered the snakes before lunging toward them and eventually grabbing both reptiles by their tails.
Naturally, the snakes immediately started biting him.
And naturally, RFK Jr. appeared completely unfazed.
“Black snakes, they’re biting me,” Kennedy said casually while grinning into the camera as the reptiles repeatedly nipped at his hands.
At one point, Hines could be heard pleading, “Bobby, please! Bobby, Bobby, please,” while also informing him — quite accurately, many would argue — that “you are nuts.”
Honestly, somewhere between wrestling snakes barehanded and strapping dead whales to car roofs, RFK Jr. has basically become America’s weirdest action movie character.
Kennedy later posted the video online with the caption: “Cheryl cheerleads the removal of a pair of Black Racers from Dr Oz’s patio.”
The incident quickly exploded online, partly because the video was objectively chaotic, and partly because it perfectly fits RFK Jr.’s long-established reputation for extreme wildlife encounters and outdoorsman behavior that sounds almost fictional until you realize it actually happened.
The HHS secretary has long been known for his fascination with wildlife and unconventional adventures. In recent years, stories resurfaced about him admitting to dumping a bear carcass in Central Park years ago, while another infamous tale involved transporting a dead whale on top of his vehicle from Massachusetts to New York.
So apparently, wrestling snakes on a patio barely even cracks the top ten anymore.
Fortunately for Kennedy, the black racer snakes involved in the incident are nonvenomous and generally harmless to humans, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. However, the species is known to bite aggressively when threatened — something Kennedy personally confirmed multiple times during the video.
The museum also notes that most bites occur when humans intentionally bother the snakes.
In other words: the snakes were basically saying exactly what Cheryl Hines was saying the entire time.
Still, the clip gave supporters another glimpse into why RFK Jr. has developed such a uniquely unconventional public image. Unlike carefully scripted politicians managed by teams of consultants and PR handlers, Kennedy often comes across as completely unpredictable, unapologetically eccentric, and almost impossible to stage-manage.
Whether people find that refreshing or insane probably depends entirely on whether they were the ones standing next to the biting snakes.
