Fans don't seem to be happy that Dwight Yoakam posed for a picture with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, actress Cheryl Hines.
The photo was taken backstage at Yoakam's show on Saturday, Nov. 15, at Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services posted the photo on social media. The caption read, "All the way to Asheville for a night of Hillbilly music with Dwight Yoakam."
In the pic, the musician and sometimes actor points at Kennedy in what appears to be an endorsement.
The Pic of Dwight Yoakam and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Caused Quite the Reaction
On Instagram, where another shot included Yoakam, Kennedy, Hines, and opening act Junior Brown, users seemed to approve of the meeting.
"Dwight and Kennedy, it's a good thing," posted one user.
Another fan wrote, "Great pics of a fun couple."
Meanwhile, responses on X were noticeably more critical of Yoakam and Kennedy.
"Well that's disappointing," wrote one fan.
"RFK Jr. posting like he just discovered 'hillbilly culture' on a field trip bro acting folksy for the cameras while trying to score relatability points," added another. "Feels more like campaign cosplay than a night out."
Not everyone on X was pessimistic about the meetup. One user wrote, "From politics to pickin' - who knew hillbilly vibes could outshine the Beltway? Dwight's got the hat, you've got the moves! You can bet on it."
Is Dwight Yoakam Political?
When asked if he is political in a 1999 interview with the New York Post, Yoakam replied with this:
"Yeah, but I don't like to get into a discussion of it because that's not what I do. I don't know if, as a performer, I have the right to impose my political views on other people. My views might not always be that correct."
He added, "There might be humor in them that could be misinterpreted. Now that I've said all that, libertarianism, the pure Jeffersonian ideal to me is appealing. I'm not an active member of the Libertarian Party, but I do think there is room for their concepts in our experiment in democracy. We are responsible for our actions. We should consider taking that road less traveled with less government.
"I guess I rambled into a pretty big ditch for a guy who didn't want to talk about politics."
