INSIDE THE REPORTED MELTDOWN OF JACK SCHLOSSBERG’S CAMPAIGN CQ💥

Democratic congressional candidate Jack Schlossberg attends a dinner in New York on March 18 and pretends to be asleep on May 14.Credit : 

Roy Rochlin/Getty; Jack Schlossberg/Instagram

Jack Schlossberg, the sole grandson of President John F. Kennedy, denied and mocked reporting from The New York Times that his management of his Manhattan congressional campaign has been tumultuous and marked by his own nap breaks and unexplained disappearances.

“Apparently, I took a nap in November and I exercise, those are kind of the main critiques of me,” Schlossberg said on CNN during a visit to Washington, D.C., on Thursday, May 14, arguing that “there’s a lot in that article that’s not true.”

“You know how this works, once you’re declared the frontrunner and early voting starts in less than a month, everyone’s got something to say,” the 33-year-old Kennedy family scion added.

The Times article detailed anecdotes from the campaign that reflected poorly on Schlossberg, including an allegation that he scrapped a plan on the first day of his campaign to call press and prospective donors in favor of a nap.

Schlossberg mocked the anecdote in an Instagram post on Thursday, posting a photo of himself pretending to sleep with the caption, “Needed a quick nap !! Even though I just woke up. Rest of the day and month is wide open [let me know] if you wanna hang.”

He later posted his CNN interview with the caption: “If you’re gonna hit me, then hit me !! Our campaign is making our opponents REALLY mad :)”

“We’re winning because we’re working harder,” he wrote. “We’re winning with people on policy and passion.”

Citing conversations with Democrats, Kennedy family friends, union leaders, and others linked to the campaign, the Times described a chaotic environment with high turnover in key positions and an inexperienced candidate whose erratic behavior proved challenging for the staffers trying to get him elected in the crowded Democratic primary contest to replace retiring longtime Rep. Jerry Nadler.

PEOPLE has not independently verified the allegations in the article, and Schlossberg’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Among the allegations reported by the Times were claims that Schlossberg regularly skipped weekly strategy meetings and would disappear from his staff for long periods of time, including to swim or paddleboard in the Hudson River bordering New York’s 12th Congressional District, which spans Manhattan’s Upper East and West sides.

Other allegations include that he fired people frequently, sometimes without letting those fired know for weeks that he had decided to dismiss them.

The Times also reported that Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton’s Senate campaign took notice when Schlossberg seemingly copied a video Moulton made about President Donald Trump’s military aggression towards Venezuela in November 2025.

Schlossberg later updated his post’s caption to add that he was “grateful to @sethmoulton for leading on this issue and getting the info out to the American people so clearly and with urgency — follow @sethmoulton for Venezuela updates and more.”

Moulton’s campaign declined to comment when reached by PEOPLE.

“It’s hard to have a straight face and say Jack Schlossberg copies anyone on social media,” Schlossberg’s campaign manager Paige Phillips told the Times.

Phillips also pushed back on the allegations that Schlossberg disappeared from his campaign with frequency, arguing he was mounting his bid for Congress “amid a deeply, deeply personal tragedy,” following the death of his sister Tatiana Schlossberg in December 2025.

“If an anonymous source thought he ‘disappeared’ at any point, they should remind themselves of that fact,” Phillips told the Times, though she did not address the specifics of the alleged nap on the day of his campaign launch.

But even Phillips’ job title was unclear for a time, according to the Times. After he fired his first campaign manager, Annabel Lassally, a few weeks into the campaign, Schlossberg reportedly told donors and others that he was managing his own campaign until recently.

One staffer who departed the campaign last week, canvassing coordinator Jorge Muñiz Reyes, told the Times the campaign was like a “dollar-store flower bouquet.”

“The colors might be nice to look at for a few days,” he said. “But since the flowers lack roots, they can’t last very long.”

Schlossberg adamantly defended his decision-making, campaign, and resume in the CNN interview on Thursday.

“I’m a decisive person and I run an operation that is nimble and small with a core group of young people, primarily women, who are running a campaign that is completely different with a different strategy and a pace that a lot of people can’t keep up with,” Schlossberg said when pressed on the allegations by CNN’s Dana Bash.

Public polls in February and March showed Schlossberg leading the pack, which includes New York state Assembly members Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, as well as George Conway — the ex-husband of Kellyanne Conway, the longtime Trump adviser.

A more recent poll reported by Politico on Thursday had Schlossberg in second behind Lasher, but the poll was conducted in April with a relatively small number of voters.

The Times also spoke to a woman who said she interviewed for a job on the campaign through a one-on-one video conversation that began courteously. She alleged that Schlossberg began slamming his hands on the table and pushing his face close to the camera to emphasize how much he wanted her on the campaign.

The woman found the incident flirtatious and uncomfortable, according to the Times. Phillips told the paper she participates in every interview for the campaign and that “this did not happen.” The woman, however, alleged that Phillips was not on the Zoom call.

On CNN on Thursday, Schlossberg went on to defend his professional experience, something his critics and opponents often question.

Schlossberg pointed to his degrees from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, plus his brief stint at the Biden administration’s State Department, his social media prognosticating, and his Democratic Party activism as experiences he relies on as he pursues a seat in Congress.

“I have four words for the pundits trying to understand our strategy: follow the bouncing ball,” Schlossberg said on CNN.

“Meaning?” Bash asked.

“Meaning that we’re gonna lead you,” Schlossberg replied. “And at the end you’ll find exactly how the song ends.”