Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scion of one of the nation’s most famous Democratic families, plunged into the full embrace of a host of conservative figures on Monday, eagerly promoting his long-shot primary challenge to President Biden.
For more than two hours, Mr Kennedy took part in an online audio chat with the forum on Twitter Elon Musk, the increasingly right-wing CEO, They engaged in a friendly back-and-forth with the likes of Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic Congressional right-wing commentator; a top donor to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis; And a professional surfer who became a prominent voice expressing skepticism over coronavirus vaccines.
Mr. Kennedy, who announced his 2024 presidential campaign in april, myself a leading vaccine skeptic, and has promoted other conspiracy theories. yet they have continued around 20 percent In the polling for the Democratic primary, which the party has otherwise handed to Mr. Biden.
On Monday, he seemed like a far more comfortable candidate in the polls Mushrooming Republican Presidential Contest,
He said he planned to travel to the Mexican border this week to “try to formulate policies that permanently seal the border,” giving the federal government views on the war in Ukraine from the perspective of the Russians. and said that pharmaceutical drugs were responsible for this. Mass shooting incidents in America.
“Prior to the introduction of Prozac, we had almost none of these incidents in our country and we’ve never seen them in human history, where people walk into kids’ or strangers’ school rooms and start shooting people, said Mr. Kennedy, who noted that both his father and uncle were killed by guns.
Mr. Kennedy said there are now “about 50 people” working for his campaign. Unlike Marianne Williamson, the other declared Democratic challenger to Mr Biden, she does not aim to appeal to Democrats who are ideologically opposed to the moderate president or otherwise uncomfortable with re-appointing him. Instead, he has used his campaign platform — and his famous name — to promote misinformation and views that have little influence in his party.
asked during discussion by David Sachs, DeSantis’ top donor “What happened to the Democratic Party,” Mr. Kennedy, who is also close to Mr. Musk, spent nine uninterrupted minutes attacking Mr. Biden as a mover and claiming that his party was in control of the pharmaceutical industry.
“I think the Democratic Party has become the party of war,” Mr. Kennedy said. “I attribute this directly to President Biden.” He further added, “He has always been in favor of a very warlike, fiery and aggressive foreign policy, and believes that violence is a legitimate political tool to achieve America’s objectives abroad.”
The Democratic National Committee and Mr. Biden’s campaign declined to comment about Mr. Kennedy.
According to Twitter, the event, which had more than 60,000 listeners at its peak, at times felt like Mr. Kennedy interviewing Mr. Musk about his leadership of Twitter, a platform that lost more than half of its advertising revenue since Billionaire acquired it in October, More than 30 minutes into the start of the event, the presidential candidate inquired about releasing the tech mogul so called twitter filesSelf-driving cars and artificial intelligence.
“These are really interesting topics for people, but I think a lot of people would like to hear about your presidency,” Mr. Musk told Mr. Kennedy.
Mr. Kennedy, 69, has long been a promoter and propagandist of baseless theories that began nearly two decades ago His doubts about the outcome of the 2004 presidential election As well as common childhood vaccines. His audience for such misinformation has ballooned during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday, Mr. Kennedy reiterated several of those false statements:
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He noted that after the Affordable Care Act of 2010, “Democrats were getting more money out of pharma than Republicans.” One Analysis STAT News found that political action committees with ties to pharmaceutical companies gave more money to Republicans than Democrats in 14 of the 16 election years since 1990.
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He claimed without evidence that “Covid was clearly a biological weapon problem.” US intelligence agencies do do not believe there is any evidence This shows that is the case.
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And as he blamed psychoactive drug use for the rise in gun violence in the United States, he argued that the gun ownership rate in the US was similar to that of Switzerland. With an estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 people, the United States had one of the highest civilian gun ownership rates in the world. According to the latest International Small Arms Survey, This was more than double the rate of 52.8 in the second highest country, Yemen, and much higher than Switzerland’s 27.6.
