Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a scion of one of many nation’s most well-known Democratic households, on Monday dived into the total embrace of a number of conservative figures who eagerly promoted his long-shot main problem to President Biden.
For greater than two hours, Mr. Kennedy participated in a web based audio chat on Twitter with the platform’s more and more rightward-leaning chief government, Elon Musk. They engaged in a pleasant back-and-forth with the likes of Tulsi Gabbard, the previous Democratic congresswoman turned right-wing commentator; a high donor to Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida; and an expert surfer who grew to become a distinguished voice casting doubt on coronavirus vaccines.
Mr. Kennedy, who introduced his 2024 presidential marketing campaign in April, is himself a number one vaccine skeptic, and has promoted different conspiracy theories. But he has persistently hovered round 20 p.c in polling of the Democratic main, which the celebration has in any other case ceded to Mr. Biden.
On Monday, he appeared like a candidate way more comfortable within the mushrooming Republican presidential contest.
He mentioned he deliberate to journey to the Mexican border this week to “attempt to formulate insurance policies that may seal the border completely,” referred to as for the federal authorities to contemplate the conflict in Ukraine from the attitude of Russians and mentioned pharmaceutical medicine have been answerable for the rise of mass shootings in America.
“Previous to the introduction of Prozac, we had virtually none of those occasions in our nation and we’ve by no means seen them in human historical past, the place folks stroll right into a schoolroom of youngsters or strangers and begin capturing folks,” mentioned Mr. Kennedy, who famous that each his father and uncle have been killed by weapons.
Mr. Kennedy mentioned he now had “about 50 folks” working for his marketing campaign. Not like Marianne Williamson, the opposite introduced Democratic challenger to Mr. Biden, he doesn’t look like aiming to enchantment to Democrats who’re ideologically against the average president or are in any other case uneasy with renominating him. As a substitute, he has used his marketing campaign platform — and his well-known title — to advertise misinformation and concepts which have little traction in his celebration.
Requested through the dialogue by David Sacks, a high DeSantis donor who can also be near Mr. Musk, “what occurred to the Democratic Get together,” Mr. Kennedy spent 9 uninterrupted minutes attacking Mr. Biden as a warmonger and claimed that their celebration was underneath the management of the pharmaceutical trade.
“I believe the Democratic Get together grew to become the celebration of conflict,” Mr. Kennedy mentioned. “I attribute that on to President Biden.” He added, “He has at all times been in favor of very bellicose, pugnacious and aggressive overseas coverage, and he believes that violence is a reliable political software for attaining America’s goals overseas.”
The Democratic Nationwide Committee and Mr. Biden’s marketing campaign declined to remark about Mr. Kennedy.
The occasion, which at its peak had greater than 60,000 listeners, in keeping with Twitter, at occasions felt as if Mr. Kennedy have been interviewing Mr. Musk about his stewardship of Twitter, a platform that has misplaced greater than half of its promoting income since the billionaire acquired it in October. For greater than half-hour on the occasion’s begin, the presidential candidate interrogated the tech mogul about releasing the so-called Twitter recordsdata, self-driving automobiles and synthetic intelligence.
“These are actually fascinating matters for folks, however I believe plenty of the general public wish to hear about your presidential run,” Mr. Musk mentioned to Mr. Kennedy.
Mr. Kennedy, 69, is a longtime amplifier and propagator of baseless theories, starting practically twenty years in the past with his skepticism about the results of the 2004 presidential election in addition to widespread childhood vaccines. His viewers for such misinformation ballooned through the coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday, Mr. Kennedy repeated a number of false statements, amongst them:
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He mentioned that after the Inexpensive Care Act of 2010, “Democrats have been getting more cash from pharma than Republicans.” An evaluation by STAT Information discovered that political motion committees with ties to pharmaceutical firms gave more cash to Republicans than Democrats in 14 out of 16 election years since 1990.
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He claimed, with out proof, that “Covid was clearly a bioweapons downside.” American intelligence companies do not imagine there may be any proof indicating that’s the case.
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And as he blamed psychiatric drug use for the rise of gun violence in the USA, he contended that the gun possession charge within the U.S. was just like that of Switzerland. The US had the best civilian gun possession charge on this planet, at an estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 folks, in accordance the most recent worldwide Small Arms Survey. That was greater than double the speed of the second-highest nation, Yemen at 52.8, and far larger than Switzerland’s 27.6.
