US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gone viral after posting a video of himself grabbing two live snakes with his bare hands during a visit to Mehmet Oz’s Florida home.
The clip, shared Tuesday on X, showed Kennedy attempting to remove two black racer snakes tangled together on the patio of Oz’s beachfront Palm Beach property while his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, reacted in disbelief nearby.
Kennedy captioned the video: “Cheryl cheerleads the removal of a pair of Black Racers from Dr Oz’s patio.”
In the footage, Kennedy approaches the snakes and eventually lifts both reptiles off the ground with his hands. Hines, meanwhile, could be heard repeatedly pleading with him to stop.
“Bobby, why?” she asked as Kennedy tried to wrangle the snakes.
At one point, someone off-camera noted that the snakes appeared to have been mating before Kennedy interrupted them.
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Cheryl Hines’ reaction
Kennedy then held the twisting snakes closer to the camera while smiling. One of the reptiles appeared to bite his finger during the encounter.
“Oh my God,” Hines exclaimed before later telling her husband: “You’re nuts.”
When Kennedy was asked whether the snakes were biting him, he replied: “Yeah.”
“Honey, honey, let them go! Oh my God. Bobby, please!” Hines continued.
The video also sparked reactions across social media, with users expressing everything from admiration to disbelief.
One X user wrote that Kennedy was a “badass,” while another joked that “instead of golf he opted to catch neighborhood snakes.”
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Were the snakes venomous?
The reptiles seen in the video were identified as black racers, a nonvenomous snake species commonly found across the southeastern United States.
The snake incident adds to a long list of unusual wildlife-related stories involving Kennedy.
The Hill noted that Kennedy’s daughter once claimed he cut off the head of a whale carcass that had washed ashore in Massachusetts years ago, an incident Kennedy later said triggered a federal investigation.
In 2024, The New Yorker published a photo showing Kennedy posing next to a bear carcass after he admitted dumping the dead animal in New York City’s Central Park.
Earlier this month, Kennedy also shared a photo online showing himself holding a live bird after what he described as a “starling rescue” at Dulles Airport.
He additionally posted footage in 2024 of himself catching and relocating a rattlesnake near his California home.
