Robert F Kennedy Jr.'s Lies

Mixed with platitudes equals danger

Last night, Erin Burnett of CNN interviewed FK Jr. for at least 30 minutes. Aware of Kennedy’s views and theories, I expected Burnett to be tough on him. She wasn’t. She allowed him to go on and on about all kinds of things, 99% of which are untrue. But he couches what he says so “well” that they seem true. It was hard to listen to, and I grew increasingly angry at CNN for having him on for so long and not pushing back on his lies. Was CNN hoping that by letting him talk he would expose the dangers of his candidacy? I don’t know how many people who watch CNN are considering Kennedy, but in the end, he came off badly—albeit smooth and reasonable sounding. No shouting, no expletives. Today, several news outlets wrote about the interview and quoted some of his manipulative views.

One statement Kennedy made was particularly outrageous: that Biden is more of a threat to our Democracy than Trump. The Washington Post reported that, “…Kennedy gave a lengthy defense of that argument, saying ‘the greatest threat to democracy is not someone who questions election returns,’ but rather Biden, pointing to his administration’s exchanges with social media companies.” In other words, the fact that social media companies such as Instagram censored Kennedy’s posts about his crazy vaccine theories, it was Biden’s fault for allowing social media companies to do that. Kennedy also invoked his uncle and father’s names repeatedly, just to be sure he said their names in case anyone forgot. And two times, I felt he was obviously trying to attract the Bernie Sanders voters. Once by invoking how great the election system is in Vermont (Senator Sander’s state), and the other time railing against corporate greed and how Biden and Trump are incapable of doing anything about that because they are emeshed with that world. Sanders had real ideas, Kennedy is dangerous.

Obviously Kennedy won’t win, but the risk is he may garner enough of a following to spoil the election for Biden. I’ve been around long enough to remember when Ralph Nader did just that— and whom Kennedy actually strongly criticized for taking votes away from Al Gore which in part cost him the Presidency. And there have been others, Bernie Sanders most recently.

The NY Times has an in-depth piece about Kennedy and his lies and conspiracy theories and his recent interviews, which I recommend reading. Here is one small excerpt:

“With a straight face, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that Joe Biden is a bigger threat to democracy than Donald Trump because he was barred from pushing conspiracy theories online,” the adviser, Mary Beth Cahill, said. “There is no comparison to summoning a mob to the Capitol and promising to be a dictator on Day 1.”

It seems that Kennedy, as well as Trump, use misinformation and vague and untrue accusations to cloud the truth and confuse voters. And in Kennedy’s case, he says things like he wants to “bring the country together,” and “ending divisiveness” that the two major party candidates are causing. His platitutes make him seem reasonable, and who can disagree with wanting to end divisiveness and bring us all together? That, along with his famous family name recognition (his entire family is not supporting him), he hopes to swindle Americans of their votes.

These types of tactics are also a threat to democracy.

One not prone to platitutes, but to lies and accusations, Trump took to the internet waves to blast hateful and dangerous rhetoric on— of all days—Easter Sunday, a time of love, family and renewal. In case you missed it, I want to show you one of his Easter Sunday post on Truth Social, thanks to Lucian Tuscott’s newsletter:

Thank you for letting me rant about Kennedy. Having grown up on the Kennedy family, it is very hard to watch. His tactics scare me.

I tried to think of a drawing that would encapsulate the idea of dangerous platitudes, danger to democracy, and the confused voter. I drew Lady Liberty, the voting box, voters….but nothing congealed visually. So I did a caricature of RFK instead.

Here is a video of RFK’s sister Rory Kennedy, speaking out against her brother.

Happy Tuesday, see you tomorrow.