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Pancetta, mushroom, tortellini. You can eat smart, still fitting your bikini. I ordered blue apron, I've been happy ever since. They sent pre-portioned meals, I don't make no measurements. Saute to pancetta, then I add the mushrooms.
Large skillet, cause you can't have too much room. Garlic pesto, tomato paste, calabrian chili, season to taste. Order blue apron today. His name is all you need to know: John Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg, grandson of President John F. Kennedy.
Sunday mornings Mo Rocka had a chance to sit down with Jack Schlossberg, now a candidate for Congress. My dad, he's an artist. He made me that for my birthday one year. Who you see is who I love. It's wonderful to have a parent who's an artist.
Yes, oh my God. Yeah, and a dad who loves you, no matter what. Yeah, yeah. And how does he feel about you running for office? Oh my God.
He was like, about time, let's go. Come on. Really? My son, my son, the politician, let's go. He knows I'm born for this.
Is that right? Oh, yeah. You're being serious. Absolutely. My dad believes in me so much.
Both my parents are so excited about our campaign. They come to all of our events. They're cheering me on. They think they've watched me. You know, there's a lot of pictures over there for me from high school.
They've known I've loved and been obsessed with politics for the right reasons my whole life, just because I couldn't help but be interested in what was happening to our country. I couldn't help but care about immigration and healthcare and education and those issues. And I put myself in situations to learn about that, and they're so proud now to see what I've built, the following I've built. My parents get such a kick out of it when people start cheering me on on the street. They can't believe it.
They think it's so awesome. And they're proud that I've been speaking out and speaking loudly against what our whole family sees as a hostile takeover of a democracy by a president who is cruel and corrupt. and an unconstitutional person. You know, your mother is a very, it seems like a very private person. Will she campaign for you?
No, she's already been out there waving the flag. She's all jacked for New York all the time. Yeah. She loves it. She's so proud.
Okay, this whiteboard, did you do this for us? No, are you kidding me?
So I lie down in bed at night and I can look at my plans.
So we've got Jack's fast track plan, how to protect houses of worship in New York, Jack's tariff plan, lower the cost of food and clothes, the housing plan, deduct your rent from your taxes. If you rent in New York 12 like so many people do, you should be able to deduct your rent from your taxes, just like a mortgage interest payment. Why don't we have that? That's out of control. NYCHA tenants, we need to fix it now.
New York City Housing Authority, public housing, people deserve to be living in dignified, safe conditions, and we need to invest in public housing. But if you didn't like that, you might like the ricochet rule. keeping illegal guns out of New York 12 by putting a penalty on states that export and contribute to the flow of illegal guns trafficking into New York State. We want to shake 50,000 hands in New York 12. And we can't forget about nurses, actors.
the arts would make this city so great, and childcare, the Fran Act. Named after the nanny, of course.
Okay, for Fran Trasher, right? For the nanny. And good theme song. The actor act. That's interesting.
Yeah, we think that talent should be able to. Talent is getting screwed by management too often, and so we want to make sure that people can deduct also the talent fees that they pay for their agents from their taxes, too. We got to save people money. People are hurting in New York 12. People are not, people think they can't afford to live here anymore, especially artists which make this place so amazing.
We got to help them out. There's a lot more we can do. And what is this here?
So this is a sign that I was given from somebody in the mail, mailed it to me when I was in college. And it's our man Jack. It's from 1960. It's from my grandpa's campaign.
So that was their slogan. And I always thought it was cool. And so we got our Jack for New York logo, which looks kind of similar. Didn't your cousin RFK Jr. repurpose?
Oh yeah, he took, yeah, he's a propaganda aficionado.
So he used the JFK 1960 Kennedy Jingle and ad in a Super Bowl commercial. And um He's been doing this, kind of hijacking the Kennedy legacy and slapping it on top of Trump, wherever Trump wants to put it, in a way that is. Really emblematic of what Trump is doing across the board, attacking not just my family, attacking anyone who's had a hand in building this country. Generations who came before us, the greatest generation, all built this country. And the Kennedy name and legacy represents a progressive agenda that is being dismantled by the president while they.
say that they're for it. On some level, that you had to rescue it from your cousin? I think we all need to be. This is not a drill, what's going on right now. This is serious.
America has already changed forever. And we all need to be all hands on deck. And I'm just doing what I think I can do best, which is represent my hometown, the place that I love, and make sure that we have somebody fighting for the values that makes this place what it is. But it must have ticked you off when you saw the ad. Oh, just a little.
Why is there a skeleton here?
Well, I had a back injury and I had to kind of relearn how to walk and stand up straight. And so at the time, I wanted to study and visualize posture and my bones because I felt that I was born with no bones. I'm a squid. That's what I like, I feel like an invertebrate. And so I would study, I would just think about this.
And then I was given a robe, a hand-me-down robe from my grandpa, and a hand-me-down hat from my grandpa. And then I kind of put the robe on him and I realized, oh my god, now I can ask him questions. And we can talk. And this is the Grandpa on your mom. Yes, that's President Kennedy's robe.
I think it's a dressing robe, and this is his hat. Which I think he didn't wear very often, but he wore it sometimes. Right, because hat makers really didn't like it. Yeah, he killed the hat industry. Yeah, so it's funny.
But yeah, so I'm making him wear it now. I know this was a gift to him from my grandmother. And this isn't his, but it's from the Solomon Islands where he was shipwrecked. And I was given this by someone from there.
So that's pretty cool.
So that's connected to PT-109, right? Exactly. Yeah, what made him a great war hero. Yes, that story that launched his political career. Right, right.
And you know, but the thing about the skeleton that's interesting, I mean, is it really, I know it's kind of fun to have, but is it a little bit also kind of knowledgeous, power that you had this. Physical problems. Never forget. Never forget that anything you're doing is more fun and exciting and a huge privilege, especially compared to staying in bed all day, not knowing if you'll ever be able to walk again. What was the injury or ailment?
So I love to paddle. Oh shit. And so I was doing that a lot. I trained for a race and I raced around Manhattan. And I actually came in seventh.
It was a semi-pro race. I did in under five hours. And I was training for these long-distance races at the same time I was starting law school, first year of law school. And so I was training and training and training, and then I blew out my back one day training, and it turned out that I had. A lot of stuff wrong with my pelvis and hip that had been bothering me, but I had kind of just been like, whatever, don't talk about it, just keep paddling.
Just suffer through it. Yeah. And then so, and I blew out my back and my hip, and I had to get my whole hip reconstructed with two different surgeries, and I couldn't really walk for about four years. What's going on over here? These are my stuffies, my stuff animals.
I got to talk to them too. They say the campaign's going great and they're really liking what they say. They really like our policy plans. Your campaign slogan is Believe in something again. What do you mean?
Well Believe in something again. America is turning 250 years old this year. I'm a spiritual guy. I think it's coming at this moment for a reason. Our country is at a crossroads.
I see a past that made America the great country it is today because they believed. Because people used to believe in the federal government that we were all in this together, and today, I see a president who wins and a Republican Party determined to have people believe in nothing. We can't even believe what they're saying.
So I want a future where people believe again. give people a reason to believe in something again. I think you probably grab a lot of people with the word believe and then when you get to believe in the federal government, I think you probably lose a lot of people. I feel connected to a past, to generations who came before us, who built New York City. Built it as a progressive beacon and built America as the country that it is today, a compassionate country that led the world through strength but also through its example.
And I think people believe in that history and it means a lot to them. And I think that the reason why people are getting so upset right now and the reason why people find this president to be so cruel, out of touch, corrupt, and unconstitutional and criminal is because they do believe in the federal government. They do believe in setting an example for the rest of the world. And they don't believe anything that's coming out of this guy's mouth.
So yeah, there's a lot of skepticism toward the federal government and people have been given a reason not to believe. How deep do you think it goes? I mean, do you think it's a crisis of apathy and even like nihilism? That people just have given up. I don't think people have given up.
I think they've been given a lot of reasons to be skeptical. One of those reasons is something I'm passionate about fighting and changing. It's our campaign finance laws. Special interests. And insiders have captured our electoral system.
And that's a big reason why a lot of the changes that seem like common sense don't actually happen. And so I think people have been given reasons, especially young people my age, given reasons to think. Why would I participate? My vote doesn't count. Especially if I don't live in a blue state.
Now the whole federal government's being used to attack my state. I shouldn't participate.
Well, I think that they actually, if they're being spoken to by someone who speaks their language, someone who understands them, someone who's trying to meet them where they are, I've been shown over the past two years, people don't want a superhero, they just want someone who can help them. believe in themselves again and who believes in our collective ability to solve big problems because they know there's no other way to do anything about the challenges we face, whether from overseas or internally domestically, other than working together. What do you mean when you say you're a spiritual guide? I'm a spiritual person in the sense that I feel connected to a past. I don't think that the generations who built this country are gone.
I think that The past isn't dead and buried, as the famous quote goes, it isn't even past. And I think Our country is at a crossroads now, and I can feel history watching this moment. I know that may sound crazy, but I think a lot of other people can too. I know you're a big history reader. Yes.
Go ahead, continue. I feel excited to welcome The challenge of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. And I think that is happening right now. I don't think we have any idea what comes at the other end. of losing the midterm elections for the Democratic Party.
If the Democratic Party doesn't win the midterm election, this whole thing could be over. America. There is no way to stop a third term, an unconstitutional hostile takeover of power again, which we already saw with January 6th, by the way. I haven't forgotten about that. A lot of people have forgotten about January 6th.
That was an attack on the rule of law and democracy in America. We cannot let that happen again. And if we do, it's our own fault. If we do, it's because we stop believing. I haven't believed, I will never stop believing.
Does your grandfather's legacy feel like a lot to live up to. I don't see it that way. I think we all have a lot to live up to. We're all Americans. We are all benefiting from generations of people who built this country, whether it was roads and skyscrapers here in New York or the federal government that now protects us and provides services to so many people.
Whether your ancestors came here just a generation ago or 10 generations ago, you had a hand in building this country too. And I do not want one person, one corrupt. orange individual. to destroy that for the future. Because It's not just about me and us, and today.
What's happening now is for all time. And our country has already changed. Our country has already faced. terrible odds and overcome them, but this is different. Why do you think Congress is held in such low regard.
And it's been held in low regard when it's in for many years now, when it's been in Democratic or Republican hands. First of all, let me just say, Congress has always been dysfunctional. John Adams was very frustrated with Congress from the very beginning. But it's at a record low now, about 16%, since records began being. Yeah, because we don't have any people in there willing to shake things up and get it done.
We need a new generation of people there. Our Congress is way too old, by the way. We need a generation of people in there to go up. Go to Capitol Hill and start changing things.
So, what is a good, because most people, if you ask them, what is a member of the House of Representatives to do, I don't think they know what they're supposed to be doing. I think they think, oh, I think they vote on stuff and then they run for reelection. What are they supposed to do? Here's where I see the job: someone who can take. and channel.
The energy and creativity and drive of their own district, of the people who live there, of the industry, of the artists, of the nonprofits, of the entire community, and translate that into power, political power in Washington, who can use a megaphone and amplify the voices of the place that they come from. And that's why I'm running now, because I think I can do that. I think that this district, New York 12, is special. The clock strikes 12 at midnight on New Year's Eve. We start counting time from this district, from Times Square.
And we need somebody who knows how to translate that energy and drive into getting things done because we cannot afford to have New York be silent. Or light lead with a whimper and a sigh. We need someone to go down there who has a megaphone, and I have that.
Okay, you have a megaphone, but. What experience do you have that qualifies you? And you know that Jerry Adler, whom you're running to replace, to succeed, I should say. Has said, you don't have a record, has endorsed his aide, Michael Lasher, who serves in the state legislature as an assemblyman.
So, I mean, so our campaign has been endorsed by Speaker Pelosi, Speaker Amerita Pelosi, who I think understands I have the exact experience needed right now for politics. Let me tell you that. Why do you think Nancy Pelosi endorsed you? Because I have the experience needed and the political chops and policy chops to get things done. I'm a trained lawyer.
I have an MBA. That's one thing. I worked for the State Department on Environmental Policy under the Obama administration. That's another. I have work experience.
But the real experience I have is over the last two years. At the end of 2023, I saw something coming, and it was a huge loss for the Democratic Party. I said At the end of 2023, I saw the Democratic Party is not competing. We are not competing online. We are not competing for young voters.
We are not getting our message out there. We are the best kept secret in politics. How well the Biden administration did in the first two years of its term is the best kept secret in politics. I wanted to make sure people knew that.
So what did I do? I decided to go work for the Biden campaign. I signed a contract. I went to Willington. I was hired to make to do youth engagement and social media content for the Biden campaign.
I got there, I said I have some ideas. How about this video or this one? How about this? What if we tried this? No, no, no, no, no.
No to everything I thought of. They were resisting you, the Biden administration, what you wanted to do. Absolutely. And I love Joe Biden. Unapologetically, I love him.
What he got done in his first two years in office, unbelievable, a progressive person's dream.
So I wanted people to know. I wanted people to know that real story. How about this video? How about that one? No, no, no.
We're not, basically in short, no risks. Just keep your mouth shut and let's ride this out. And this is when Biden was still the candidate. Yes. I quit.
And I started making my own social media videos. They went so viral and reached so many people and were so well received by young people. that in a month they said Hey Jack, can you come speak at the DNC? Hey Jack, could you travel to every single swing state and be our top surrogate? Will you visit We go to the Senate races and help the down-ballot candidates in Wisconsin and Nevada, in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania?
I said, sure. I'll do anything. All I want to do is help. And right now. And that experience taught me a lot.
It taught me, first of all, The insiders that I believed in, and that I wanted to be right. You know, I was on a track to be an insider myself. I went to Harvard. I went to Yale, then I went to Harvard twice, got a JD and an MBA. I was going to be a lawyer.
I thought I had it all figured out. I'll do this, then I'll do this, then I'll do this. No, I had to do something different because we're in a different moment. And that's exactly what's happening in New York 12 in this race. I'm the outsider in this race, and the insiders do not like you.
And I know that. They don't like you either, Mo.
Well, you know, I'm not in the district. One of these videos on your feed. From an event recently, you said about running. You said people told me it's a terrible idea. Terrible idea.
Who told you that? Every single person in this district who already knows who they're voting for is someone who has a favorite occurry with that person.
So there's a political machine here in New York, and they don't want any competition. They don't want any competition at all. They want to have the hand-chosen successor. Have no competition and be re-elected. They think I'm entitled.
I think that's incredibly entitled. They don't want a competitive primary.
So I ran and I said, you know what? I'm not trying to hurt you guys. I'm just trying to help. All I want to do is make sure the Democratic Party doesn't blow it again. And we're about to.
We're about to swing and miss if we don't try something different. There are about 12 candidates in this race.
So you're saying you're the outsider. Absolutely. And for somebody who's a member of the Kennedy family to say they're not outsider, it's ironic. But it's true, and that's exactly what my experience was and showed me on the 2024 campaign, which was: I was the ultimate insider. And I couldn't do it the inside way.
I know how the inside thinks, how it works. I spent a lot of time with them. And I know enough to know they really don't like me, not because I'm a Kennedy. Because I'm Jack. Because I speak my mind and because I'm challenging the way that they do things, and I'm going right over their heads and talking to people directly.
Do you know our campaign? only campaign was his average donation. It's not just below $100, it's below $40. We have 35,000 people who have donated to our campaign from all 50 states. We have thousands of young people who have signed up to volunteer.
We are the people-powered campaign. When did you decide that you were going to run? I mean, I know when you declared in November, November 12th, right, this past November, but. Had you been thinking about this for a long time? I've loved politics since I was a kid, since I can remember.
I love politics genuinely inspired by Barack Obama when I was in eighth grade and he was running for president and I couldn't turn off the news and I haven't since then. I've loved politics. I worked in DC throughout high school and college on campaigns. I went to law school for this very reason because I wanted to learn. This was not my plan to run now.
I didn't see this seat opening up. I had no idea it was coming. I also didn't think I would go from being a JD MBA to a content creator. I had no I I did not see that as my path. But When the seat to represent the place, this is where I'm from.
You know, I grew up on the Upper East Side. I went to school on the Upper West Side. I live in Chelsea. This district is a map of where I've lived in my life. My family's lived here for five generations.
This is truly home. And All of a sudden, the seat to representing Congress opened up at a time when I saw the Democratic Party needs help. It needs help, it needs new ideas, new creative energy and blood. I thought, I have to do this.
So as soon as the seat opened up, I thought, This makes a lot of sense. I thought it would be happening in a different way, but it's now. Let's go.
Okay, because you could start at the state or local level. There's a city council seat where you live that's open. Yeah, I think I'd be a really great congressman. I think I could really be a great congressman. I studied national politics and.
You know, there's a lot of people running in this race pointing at their experience.
Well, none of them have been elected for very all too long. I don't know if people know that, but they're also both quitting their current jobs, which they were elected to do midway through their terms. They'd rather not serve the people of New York. For one more day. than take and miss the chance to move upper rank.
I'm doing this because I think our party needs help, I think I'd be great at it, and I think a lot of people in Washington would want to work with me because I have something to offer them. When you were growing up, did you all talk politics around the dinner table? I did, and people often didn't want to. Is that right? My sisters, especially, sometimes didn't always want to, but they couldn't stop me from talking about it.
And after Trump won. You know, I would just come, I would go visit my family, and I couldn't stop talking about what I was seeing. Ultimately, I would want people to know this about me, in addition to my experience. my life experience, my education, and my work experience. I would like them to also know this.
We live in a time with a toxic and polluted media environment. It's been polluted by the president himself and by others. It's a toxic place, and there's very, the air is sulfuric. I know how to breathe. I know how to breathe in that environment, and I know how to thrive in that environment.
You know how to, and this is an overused word, you know how to navigate. I know how to navigate. I know how to fight. And I know how to dance. Are you the best dancer among all the competitors in the different countries?
I would primarily love to find out. I would absolutely love to find out who can dance the best. We could do salsa, we could do ballet, we could do the waltz boxt trot. I'm open to anything. I mean, you've made the point already, but I have to say, one of your political heroes, Barack Obama, just recently said, in reaction to President Trump posting that horribly racist post about Mr.
and Mrs. Obama. He said essentially that social media was a clown show and that most people did not like it and wanted people to behave decently and politely. But you're saying. Roll up the sleeves.
I'm saying gloves off, dude. What are we waiting for? I mean, no disrespect, President Obama, you know, he's a master politician, right? But I would say for a generation that is doom scrolling all day long, this stuff seeps in. And now we see the digital world also drives traditional media, the classical world too.
And we can't just let this stuff go unanswered. What, so we're not allowed to tease them back, we've got to sit on our hands the whole time? I don't think that that's actually worked for us. And I'm most interested in figuring out how to win now. If we don't win now, our country is going to fall apart.
What are we waiting for? You know, when you were saying about sitting on your hands and being nice and all that, a lot of people would call that. a little bit Of the vestiges of wokeism. I mean, do you think there's a fair criticism? I am as woke as you can get.
Meaning, I'm so woke, I'm willing to put my neck out on the line to defend progressivism, Democratic Party, and being compassionate and caring.
Well, I mean, so you're willing to embrace the word woke, which has kind of a I'm super woke. And you know what? If you want to throw a term that means treating other people with respect, being conscientious of other people, being a proud Democrat, if you want to throw that at my feet like it's an insult, I will take it and wear it as a badge of honor. We'll have more from our Sunday morning extended interview after this break. She loves it hot.
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Every morning, you get daily health insights. and a sleep fitness score. Get up to $350 off with code DEEPSLEEP at eightsleep.com. What do you think people don't know about people your age? You're 33 and younger, because I'm.
late fifties and sometimes I wonder how much younger people value our history. How I'll say it. I think that Young people are really smart. and that we have a really good nose for BS. We can tell authentic from not really, really quickly.
And Every generation, I think, I'm guilty of this with Gen Z, I'm a millennial. It's easy to criticize a younger generation for not being the same or holding a certain standard up. I get it. I see young people who are so unbelievably engaged in politics and And get that we are past the point of no return and we need to change now. And that's why so many young people.
And not just young people, but the young at heart. stop me on the street and want to take pictures and talk about our campaign. That's why people are so excited about the content that I make, because somebody's speaking their language, and they get it. They get that their future's on the line.
So yeah, I do think that people sometimes don't understand. The complexities or contextual history of certain issues, I think that's fair. That's something I take really seriously and would want to. Try to provide, set an example. But I do think I gotta say, on behalf of people my age and younger, that we're smart and we're ready for change.
Why didn't you practice law after law school? I was all set up. I wanted to be a public defender here in New York. And this was at the end of 2023. I passed in the top 1% in the bar exam, so I was really excited to practice law.
I decided not to because, as I said before, The 2024 campaign was coming up, and I thought the Democratic Party was about to lose big, and I thought. I don't know if I can, in good conscience, not try to help with this, especially if I think I have something to offer.
So, I wanted to try to help.
So, instead of practicing law and arguing in a court, I decided to argue in the court of public opinion. And so I do think that my law degree, my legal training, is actually what is behind how much of my content works and breaks through. Because you've got to make a good argument online. You can't just be funny or whimsical. You need to also provide viewers with information.
And that's really the secret. How much of the creativity do you think came from your father? I wouldn't blame my dad for anything that I've said. You know, he's too good of a person. I think I was raised by people, I was raised in parents who loved me.
Sisters who teased me, and they sharpened my wit. I think I give my family credit for anything that I am today. Do you think it's a good thing that you grew up with the name Jack Schlossberg and not Jack Kennedy? I think there was only one way I was ever going to grow up and that was the way I grew up. Yeah.
I'm proud to be Jack Schlossberg. A lot of people know of one grandfather of mine, President Kennedy, who's President of the United States, but my other grandfather was president of his temple uptown, and I feel just as connected to that history, to my Jewish history and Jewish roots, as I do to The other side of my family. Were you raised Catholic or Jewish? I was raised Catholic. We went to church and I was confirmed and had my first communion, but I felt like I was raised Catholic in an extremely Jewish way and in a very Jewish world.
We also had Passover Seder, we celebrated Hanukkah. All my friends, my best friends, were all Jewish, and I felt like the community life of Jews in New York and the sense of humor, Jewish theater, a lot of that stuff was also really, really important. you know, some of the religious doctrine, sure, but really it was more the culture and ethos of Uh Of being Jewish and being Jewish in New York City, that I think really shaped me.
So, today do you identify more as Jewish, say, than Catholic?
Well, I'm more Jewish than I am anything else. Yeah, yeah. But I do feel, you know, President Kennedy also was the first Catholic ever elected president, and I think young people might not know this, but at that time, that was considered a hazardous risk to his campaign that he would listen to the Pope and take orders from the Pope. It seems out of date now, but. People really thought that a Catholic person couldn't be trusted or could never be elected president.
And so I feel proud of the fact that I'm an outsider in this race now. President Kennedy was an outsider when he was running for office. You know, that's how a lot of the leaders actually start. Who's your most important advisor?
Well, I am my own campaign manager. I am my own comms person. I have no formal consultants. And This campaign looks completely different than anyone else's campaign who's running.
So I would say my closest confidants are a few of my friends. from college, from law school, and from recent, my more recent life. And family members or? Yeah, well I mean My mom and I know what each other are thinking without having to talk. She's my advisor, but she lives inside of my mind, and I live inside of her mind.
Well In a good way. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a really, you're that close. My mom taught me pretty much everything I know. Um I got to spend a lot of time with her.
working for the Kennedy Library. on the Profile and Courage Award. I lived with her when she was an ambassador to Japan. I worked with her when she was ambassador to Australia. She is She was not only an incredibly effective diplomat, but she is a political Genius and someone who understands the difference not just between.
Tactics and strategy, but also what really matters. My mother is someone who understands, whose values are so solid. and who does things for the right reasons all the time. Who seeks out type attention only when it's in service of a greater purpose? And so My instincts were built by somebody who is A master.
And purposeful. And purposeful. And so I do believe that we have been incredibly close, and I love her so much. Yeah, and is she fully supportive of this or a little conflict? Oh my god, my mom.
Yeah, my mom is more than fully supportive. I mean, you'd have to ask her, but what she'll tell you is: oh, yeah, it's about time. What took you so long, Jack? And you better run for this. We need you.
And she comes to all of our events. She's out there campaigning with me in the street, at the subway stop. She's a private person. Yeah, well, she thinks this is important enough to do something big. And she totally backs me.
And my dad, too. They're so proud and they're so psyched. Because they know what happened and my story, which was. There are a group of insiders in New York City right now. who hate me and don't want anything to change.
And my parents have seen that I'm in this for the right reasons and that I actually do know how to do things well. They believe in me and they listen to my political takes just as much as their own.
So they know. That I would do a great job, and that's why they're supporting me, not just because I'm their kid, because they've seen and I've proven them. To them. the type of media strategy, political strategy, political instincts that the Democratic Party needs to adopt now. You know, I'm always interested in people's upbringings, obviously, because how it shapes them and their character.
So, you know, and I'm one of three also. What was your role among the siblings?
Well, I think it's changed a little over time. Definitely the source of entertainment and the butt of all the jokes. As a kid growing up, I wasn't naturally the best student. I had to kind of put my time in and study extra long hours compared to my sisters. But over time, I think we developed a lot of respect for each other because they're very accomplished academically, and then I managed to.
Make my way through law school and business school, and then we could all really have interesting, fun discussions. But it's definitely someone. who entertains everybody, brings the energy. And um Keeps everyone laughing. And your uncle Ted, or great uncle, technically right, Teddy Kennedy, was he a big part of your life?
He is a towering figure, a huge part of my life. He is. He really he spent a lot of time With every member of our family, but particularly with our family, especially when I was little. We used to go on history trips around the country. We went to Valley Forge and to see the Liberty Bell and to Harper's Ferry.
and he taught me a lot about American history. I was also a Senate page for my Uncle Teddy. uh in his last summer when he was a senator. And I saw Someone who, at the same time he was fighting cancer, battling cancer, also fighting for people's health care. On behalf of getting other people healthcare too.
You're not happy about this Ryan Murphy series about your Uncle John and his wife Carolyn Bassett?
Well If you want to know someone who's never met anyone in my family, knows nothing about us, talk to Ryan Murphy. I would just want people who do watch the show to to watch it with one letter in mind, and that's a capital F. for fiction. The guy knows nothing about what he's talking about, and he's making a ton of money on a grotesque display of someone else's life. I would hope that that Mr.
Murphy would donate some of the millions of dollars of profits that he's making to maybe some of the causes that John championed throughout his life. Justice, maybe he would donate some of that money to the JFK Library to help keep President Kennedy's memory alive, but he's not. He's making money. This is not a documentary, and I'll leave it at that. And the reason I ask is because there have been, I mean, hundreds of movies, TV shows, books written about the Kennedy family.
And I wondered if there was something particular here. I think in the last year, two years, three years, be partly because of RFK Jr., but also partly because Donald Trump has Um use JFK as sort of a human punching bag. Both by renaming the Kennedy Center after himself, by doing a false reinvestigation into the assassination. and dismantling all the programs that he fought for, that there's a lot of misinformation now. And iconography being used about the Kennedy family, my family, at a time when we really can't afford to confuse people.
We really need to take every breath. that we have. Try to make things better.
So, if Ryan Murphy really cares so much about the Kennedy family, my uncle John, maybe he would try to do something about getting Trump out of power. What do you want people to know about your Uncle John that they may not know? They remember him as a very glamorous, attractive. John, he recognized where. where politics and media were headed, and that was closer and closer together.
And he did his best to try to inform people about the critical issues of the 90s in his day. By blending politics and media in a new and creative way. Exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to do with my campaign. You think he was ahead of his time? Absolutely.
George Magazine. Its purpose was To educate people about politics. He was trying to prove that that can be done in a way that isn't boring, that's exciting and fun and irrelevant. And I think social media presents the same opportunity for the Democrats today. I want to, if I may, ask you about your late sister, Tatiana.
Did she share that New Yorker essay with you before it was published? She did. She did. And I told her that the world needed to see it, and she wasn't quite sure. Um you know, she was Exceedingly humble and always held herself to a very, very high standard.
And um She thought no one would read it. And it turns out to be the most ever read story shared on the New Yorkers website. She really thought people wouldn't read it? I mean, I don't know if she was I think she might have been, I don't know, I don't know what she really thought, but she. You know, Tatiana was a perfectionist and she was a genius.
She had an insane brain. amazing horsepower up there, is what I used to say about her. And she was an incredible writer and what she wrote broke through. And I think it's because of the picture she painted, but also the fact that she laid bare. The truth which is and she had she had something to say which is RFK junior is taking away the hope that so many cancer patients have.
For a clinical trial that could save their life. With the mRNA vaccine. He's cut hundreds of millions of dollars. revoked federal grants that were already authorized to people doing life-saving cancer research that could have given her another shot and people down the line who were suffering from cancers like hers and others a shot at living. And he's completely, without any basis in science or efficaciousness, revoked those Grants.
And he's doing this across the board. His attack on science is costing people's lives. And we need to be. We need to be a lot more mad about what they're doing. Measles is on the rise.
We have a measles outbreak for the first time in 40 years in America because of some guy who thinks that who knows why he's saying this? Who knows why he's doing it? It's not backed by science.
So I would really like to get elected to Congress.
So that we can The Democratic Party can have a majority, control the judiciary, and subpoena RFK Jr. to make him come to Capitol Hill and answer questions for why he's doing what he's doing, because it's not saving lives. What your sister went through, is that part of what's powering you? I love my family so much and They are the s They're the ultimate source of strength for me. Tatiana.
And her family, I love them so much, and they put a smile on my face.
So I would say that. you know Whenever I have a tough day, I think about her, her kids, her husband, how much I love them, and it makes everything a lot easier. She described it in her essay the period after her diagnosis. What was that like for the immediate family. for your immediate family.
It It's a wound that will never heal, and that whole period of time to see someone you love suffer and not be able to do anything about it. I think a lot of people can relate to how awful that is. The feeling of you would do anything to take away someone's pain, but you can't, and so what do you do? That was really, really hard. At the same time, It gives me the strength to keep doing what I'm doing and to fight the battles I believe in fighting because that's exactly what Tatiana did.
And whenever I think about complaining about something, I think about what Tatiana went through. and the strength and resilience that she showed. And It just makes me Want to be a better person. The New York 12 I believe voted disproportionately for Cuomo. Right, you know, in essentially, it was two Democrats running for the mayor of New York.
You voted, you backed Mom Donnie. New York 12th is heavily Jewish. is in the primary, is Israel going to be a tricky issue for you? Not for me. I think people understand that where I stand.
Our first policy that we released is called Jack's Fast Track Plan. What is it?
Well, it's my proposal to double the funding for the nonprofit security grant program. And that program is a federal program that provides much needed funding for security improvements for houses of worship, synagogues, temples, mosques, churches around New York 12. And I think that What I take really seriously is the fact that people here in this district do feel scared. They feel scared about anti-Semitism being on the rise and public safety. And I think that that's my perspective on how to deliver for constituents here.
Would you support the arrest of Prime Minister Netanyahu? I don't think there's a legal basis. Let me be clear. Prime Minister Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace, and that any agreements and deals and relationship between Trump and Netanyahu. I would look very carefully at that as a representative from New York.
That being said, I don't think there is actually a basis in international or domestic law to arrest the Prime Minister for visiting the city. I would say my competitors in this race, I respect their service. I do not think that they are qualified. Michael Lasher. I don't think they're qualified to practice politics in 2026.
Really? I mean, Michael Lasher, who's been endorsed by Jerry Nadler, from the age of 19 for over 20 years, he's worked in state, city, congressional politics. He's an assemblyman right now. I know, I started in politics when I was even younger, at 16, as a Senate page, so I have a lot of political experience too. I don't think Mr.
Lasher has the experience to practice politics in the multi-dimensional world that we currently live in. I think he represents an insider's point of view about what has worked in the past maybe. I think nobody sees that candidacy as something that is for the future.
Okay.
Well, I like that you don't dodge, that you're just really blunt about it. That's what I think. I'm Jane Pauley. Thank you for listening. And for more of our extended interviews, follow and listen to Sunday Morning on the free Odyssey app.
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CBS Thursdays, are you ready for something new?
Well, CBS is all new all night. It starts with a new episode of TV's number one comedy, Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage. And then you might just die laughing because our favorite ghosts are back new too. Then, we follow up the funny with some good mystery when Kathy Bates returns on a new mat lock and with Carrie Preston on the case in a new alphabet. It's all new, CBS Thursday's 8-7 Central and streaming on Paramount Plus.
Mm-hmm.
