Invited by the GOP, RFK Jr. grilled by Democrats on past vaccine comments

By Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who has a long history of spreading vaccine misinformation claimed he has never been anti-vaccine, racist or antisemitic during a House hearing discussing censorship, despite a litany of conspiracies and discriminatory statements that he has promoted over the years.

“I want to say this, while I’m on the record, that in my entire life and, while I’m under oath, in my entire life, I have never uttered a phrase that was either racist, or antisemitic. I have spent my life fighting my professional career, fighting for Israel, for the protection of Israel” Kennedy Jr. said during the House Judiciary weaponization subcommittee hearing.

Just last week, Kennedy Jr. falsely claimed that “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” people are “most immune” to Covid-19 and said “there’s an argument that it is ethnically targeted.”

While Kennedy Jr. tried to claim he is not against vaccines, pointing out he is vaccinated for everything except Covid-19, and argued instead that he just wants safe vaccines, House Democrats used his own words against him. The Democratic candidate has baselessly called Covid vaccines unsafe and falsely linked vaccines to all kinds of diseases and health issues that actually have nothing to do with vaccines. Kennedy Jr. even suggested last year that Anne Frank was in a better situation when she was hiding from the Nazis than Americans living during the Covid-19 pandemic, which he has apologized for. Kennedy has also promoted several vaccine falsehoods apparently intended to discourage Black people from getting the Covid vaccine in a 2021 video entitled “Medical Racism: The New Apartheid.”

Republicans called Kennedy Jr. and others as witnesses as part of their probe into alleged censorship against conservatives at large technology companies.

Kennedy Jr. has previously come under fire for his previous comments from excerpts and high profile organizations like the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League.

Kennedy Jr. has a history of repeatedly sharing unfounded conspiracies that man-made chemicals in the environment could be making children gay or transgender and causing the feminization of boys and masculinization of girls.

The top Democrat on the subpanel, Rep. Stacey Plaskett accused her Republican colleagues of “endorsing” Kennedy Jr.’s “dangerous views” and giving them a platform in Congress. In her questioning of Kennedy Jr., Plaskett, who is Black, said Kennedy’s previous comments in general “manipulate and prey on Black people’s feelings about the atrocities of the past in order to prevent them from seeking lifesaving vaccines in the present.”

Plaskett told CNN after her questioning that it was Kennedy Jr. who proactively claimed he was not prejudiced, all she did was “just show what he has said and what he’s done. I didn’t characterize it as racist. He must think that what he said and done falls within that genre. So, it’ll be a long day.”

Claiming that the Biden administration was using “smears” and “representations” to silence him, Kennedy Jr. said, “I’ve never been anti vaccine, but everybody in this room probably believes that I have been, because that’s the prevailing narrative.”

Kennedy Jr. also addressed the effort by fellow Democrats to get him disinvited from the hearing, saying, “I’ve devoted my life to the values of this party. This – 102 people signed this. This itself is evidence of the problem that this hearing was convened to address. This is an attempt to censor a censorship hearing. The charges in this and by the way, censorship is antithetical to our party.”

“Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” Kennedy said at the dinner, adding that “we don’t know whether it’s deliberately targeted that or not.”

Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz tried to end the public hearing in light of Kennedy Jr.’s previous false statements, but House Republicans blocked her effort and the hearing is still underway.

The-CNN-Wire
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