Robert F Kennedy Jr posted a video Tuesday showing him crouch‑grabbing two writhing snakes at the Palm Beach waterfront mansion of Dr Mehmet Oz, while his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, is heard urging him to be careful.
The 49‑second recording, published by Kennedy, shows him wearing a shirt, trousers and socks but no shoes as he approaches and lifts the pair of reptiles and holds them up to the camera, smiling even as one of the snakes appeared to bite his hand. In his caption Kennedy wrote, "Cheryl cheerleads the removal of a pair of Black Racers from Dr Oz's patio." A woman in the footage can be heard saying, "Why?" and then, "Bobby, please."
, which published an account of the clip, said the footage was filmed at Oz's Palm Beach property and that it was not clear when the 49‑second recording was made or what happened to the snakes after the camera stopped rolling. The outlet reported that one of the snakes appeared to bite Kennedy's hand as he held it for the camera.
Officials and wildlife experts urge caution. The National Park Service describes southern black racers as non‑venomous and harmless to humans "as long as they are left alone." The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission warned this spring that snakes become more active and advised the public to "Give snakes a wide berth and admire them from a distance," adding, "Resist the urge to pick it up - even our nonvenomous snakes can give a solid bite."
The clip landed against a background of earlier public scrutiny over Kennedy's encounters with animals and animal carcasses. He admitted in 2014 to finding a dead bear cub on a road trip, putting it in his van and later dumping it in Central Park. In 2001, according to a book cited in reporting, he wrote about cutting the penis out of a road‑killed raccoon. More recently, in 2024 he has been recounted as allegedly severing the head of a washed‑up whale with a chainsaw. Those episodes, and the new snake video, have fed questions about judgment and judgment calls around wildlife.
The tension in the new recording is that it offers two competing signals: Kennedy's caption frames the moment as celebratory—"Cheryl cheerleads"—while the audio captured in the clip and 's account record Hines urging caution. The clip also runs up against official advice that even nonvenomous snakes can bite and that people should not pick them up, making the display of smiling with the animals at least imprudent in the eyes of wildlife officials.
Viewed alone, the clip is brief and ambiguous: said it was not clear when it was filmed and the post does not show what happened afterward. But taken with Kennedy's caption and his history with animals, the recording amplifies the picture of someone willing to handle wildlife and to present that choice as a normal, even jaunty, moment on social media.
The single, answerable question the tape poses—did Cheryl Hines encourage him?—is largely settled by the evidence in hand: Kennedy's own caption claims she did, and the audio shows her voice in the scene not as an outright restraining force but as a cautioning presence. In short, the clip presents both a cheerleader and a cautioned hand—Hines appears to have encouraged the removal in Kennedy's wording while simultaneously urging him to be careful in the footage itself.
