Robert F. Kennedy Jr. does not shy away from wildlife.
The Health and Human Services Secretary posted a video Tuesday to his X account that showed him cornering, chasing, and ultimately seizing two black North American racer snakes with his bare hands on the patio of Dr. Oz’s home.
His wife, actress Cheryl Hines, was standing nearby.
She was not pleased.
“Honey, honey… why?” Hines called out as Kennedy Jr. stalked the snakes across the patio.
Kennedy Jr. crouched low, made his move, and after a brief struggle managed to grab both reptiles by their tails.
What followed was roughly 50 seconds of the snakes sinking their teeth repeatedly into the HHS Secretary’s hands.
Kennedy Jr. did not flinch.
“Black snakes, they’re biting me,” he said, flashing a grin at the camera.
Hines, watching her husband get chomped on by two wild snakes, had a one-word assessment: “you are nuts.”
Her pleas grew more urgent as Kennedy Jr. held the writhing animals aloft. “Bobby, please! Bobby, Bobby, please,” she called out.
Kennedy Jr. posted the clip with a caption that suggested he viewed the whole ordeal as a routine household chore: “Cheryl cheerleads the removal of a pair of Black Racers from Dr Oz’s patio.”
The Florida Museum of Natural History confirms that North American racer snakes carry no venom and present no real danger to people.
The museum does note that the species will “readily bite to defend themselves” and that “virtually all bites occur when the snakes are intentionally molested.”
Tuesday’s video checked that box.
For Hines, this likely was not her first time watching her husband handle an animal that most people would walk away from.
Kennedy Jr. is an active falconer and carries a lengthy, well-documented track record of wildlife encounters that stretch well beyond backyard snake removal.
In 2024, the former environmental lawyer drew national headlines after admitting he deposited a dead bear carcass in Central Park.
There is also the matter of the whale. Kennedy Jr. allegedly removed the head from a dead beached whale, fastened it to the hood of his car, and drove it from the Massachusetts coastline to Mount Kisco, New York.
Compared to a bear carcass or a decapitated whale, two biting snakes on a patio may qualify as a quiet Tuesday for the nation’s top health official.
