ICYMI: Washington Post: RFK Jr. made big promises to pollution victims. Some say he didn’t keep them Arrow

Today, new reporting from The Washington Post examines how RFK Jr. spent his career preying on and profiting off of the vulnerable communities he claims to fight for. Despite pitching himself as an environmental champion who took on big corporations, records show he often accomplished little- whether it was for a Native American tribe in New Jersey or Appalachians affected by mountaintop removal.

To quote those who were impacted by his failures, RFK Jr. "took advantage" of and "used" them for "vanity project(s)." Just like Donald Trump - who now owns this baggage - RFK Jr. is a fraud.

ICYMI: Washington Post: RFK Jr. made big promises to pollution victims. Some say he didn't keep them

By: Peter Jamison

• On a spring day in 2007, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stood inside a tidy Methodist church deep in the mountains of southern West Virginia and made a solemn pledge: He would keep fighting alongside the residents of the Coal River Valley until mining companies stopped flattening their mountains and polluting their streams. "He made a promise to us in that church," said Maria Gunnoe, a lifelong resident of the region who was present that day in Rebecca Chapel. "According to him, he would be with us on the barricades." Seventeen years later, the pollution has not ended. Gunnoe said she has not seen Kennedy in this part of Appalachia since he showed up in 2011 to promote "The Last Mountain," an acclaimed documentary that chronicled his efforts to stop mountaintop removal mining. And majestic Coal River Mountain, which inspired the film's title, has been blown apart in the pursuit of long-since extracted coal.
• Its eerily jagged remnants rise above tiny towns and hollows where the Kennedy name, once held in awe, is now sometimes spoken with bitterness.
• "He took advantage of some of the poorest people in our country," Gunnoe said recently. "He left a very bad taste in the mouths of many Appalachians."
• …Others whose health and homes were at stake in the fights Kennedy took on say he badly disappointed them, promising justice but ultimately revealing himself to be little better than the enemies he tilted against - one more outsider, in their view, exploiting a community for publicity or legal fees instead of coal or factory labor.
• Wayne Mann, a member of the Ramapough Lenape Nation, plays a central role alongside Kennedy's law firm in "Mann v. Ford," a 2011 HBO documentary about tribal members' lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. over its alleged dumping of toxic paint sludge. But Mann said his enthusiasm for their attorneys soured when Ford settled out of court, denying liability while distributing relatively meager checks to Ramapough tribal members, who to this day are struggling with high rates of cancer and other ailments they attribute to pollution.
• "The way his firm handled the town I was born and raised in - if they did that to that community, what would he do running the country?" Mann said. "…I could never support him. And I could never believe in him again."
• …Several plaintiffs said thatKennedy's involvement turned out to be peripheral, and that they recalled seeing him only a few times, always trailed by the press…
• The amount was confidential, but the Bergen Record - which exposed the extent of the pollution in a 2005 investigative series - reported that plaintiffs received $10 million from Ford and $1.5 million from the borough of Ringwood. The combined $11.5 million was split among more than 600 people.
• Plaintiffs who spoke to The Post said they relied on the advice of their attorneys in accepting the settlement, which did not include medical monitoring. Ford continued to deny liability, a sore point for Ramapough who had hoped to see the auto giant admit wrongdoing…
• The documentary about the case is mentioned prominently on Kennedy's campaign website. But Mann - whose face adorns the poster for the movie - said he has undergone surgery to remove cancer in his prostate and lymph nodes, and that he and other Ramapough continue to live in fear of deadly illnesses.
• Mann objected forcefully to Kennedy's description of their struggle as a "landmark case" that resulted in victory against Ford. "He had no right to even say that," Mann said. "As a tribal member, I think that's hurtful and disgusting - and untrue."
• Kennedy has also highlighted "The Last Mountain," which his campaign website describes as showing his "tireless fight against Appalachian mountaintop removal mining." In April, the campaign posted to social media a 2011 interview he did about the film with Stephen Colbert. The documentary focuses on efforts to halt mining in the Coal River Valley, a region of languid creeks, forested peaks and shady hollows that lies south of Charleston. For more than a century, it was central both to West Virginia's coal industry and the state's dramatic history of union mine activism. Mountaintop removal uses explosives to expose coal seams by shearing away tons of dirt and rock. It requires a fraction of the human labor necessary in conventional mine tunnels, but the resulting debris can bury or pollute streams. Critics say the practice also entails health risks for people who live nearby and causes more-severe and frequent floods.
• Kennedy assailed the practice in a 2004 book, "Crimes Against Nature." In 2007, he appeared in the Coal River Valley, trailed by a film crew, to meet with residents of the dying towns along the Big Coal River. Once again, his family name stood him in good stead: West Virginia had been a bastion of support for John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election, and Robert F. Kennedy had earned goodwill throughout Appalachia during his 1968 tour of eastern Kentucky.
• In June 2011, the movie was released in theaters. Some local activists bristled at what they believed was its portrayal of Kennedy as the hero of a movement in which they believed his role had been minimal.
• "I feel like we were used by Bobby Kennedy and his organization to make him look more involved than he was," said Lorelei Scarbro, an activist who is featured in the documentary. "As far as him actually accomplishing anything, I don't think he did."
• Gunnoe, also featured in the documentary, said resentment deepened when Kennedy stopped coming to the Coal River Valley after the movie came out, leading some to question how much he had cared about their plight in the first place. "It was a vanity project for Bobby," she said.
• Gunnoe and Evans said the last time they saw Kennedy in the Coal River Valley was 13 years ago, on the fifth day of a march commemorating the Battle of Blair Mountain - a violent clash in 1921 between unionized mine workers and military and law enforcement officials. Mimicking the actions of the old miners, protesters marched 50 miles through southern West Virginia.
• Although two of his children took part in the march, Kennedy did not, Gunnoe said. But as the marchers took a break before the final, grueling climb up Blair Mountain, they watched a dark car thread its way toward them up a winding road. Kennedy stepped out and began signing posters for "The Last Mountain" handed out by an associate, according to Evans and Gunnoe, who were present.
• Kennedy said he walked several miles with the group. Gunnoe and Evans remember differently. They said he posed for some photos among the activists, many of them layered in dust and grime from the long march, and invited them to a screening of the movie that night in the state capital. Then he left them at the foot of the mountain, stepping into the car, whose hired driver ferried him away.