Well, it was only a matter of time.
Sure, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s overperformance in the primary polls against President Joe Biden has been an embarrassment to the Democratic Party at large. However, for the most part, the Kennedy family has avoided talking about the candidacy like Biden avoids talking about the exact number of grandchildren he has.
But that would only last as long as the RFK Jr. campaign stayed out of real controversy, which was inevitable, given who the candidate is; like him or not, Kennedy has been erroneously on the side of all vaccine skepticism over the better part of his career, only to have the good fortune for the 2024 campaign to be the first presidential contest after the incumbent president tried to force Americans to take a vaccine they had good reason to be skeptical of, for a change.
So, after the first major controversy of his campaign — he was caught on video at a media event July 11 repeating a theory that COVID-19 might have been a Chinese bioweapon since a study has alleged the disease disproportionately affects those of Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish descent — it was perhaps predictable that members of the Kennedy family would come out to denounce their own.
Less predictable would be how they would be put on blast by social media in the wake of their denunciations, with one conservative critic calling the shaming of one’s own family “the mark of totalitarian systems.”
First, RFK Jr.’s comments, first reported by the New York Post: During what the Post’s Jon Levine memorably described as “the question-and-answer portion of raucous booze and fart-filled dinner” in New York City, Kennedy said there was an argument COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately.”
“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” he said.
“We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not, but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact,” the Democratic candidate added.
RFK Jr. says that COVID-19 was possibly a bioweapon designed to target white and black people.
He also said that the Chinese and Ashkenzai Jews were the most immune to the Coronavirus.
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/wzlOyPdiSR
— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) July 15, 2023
RFK Jr. denied that the statement was anti-Semitic, saying Sunday on Twitter that he never intended to float the idea that “coronavirus was a bioweapon made to kill white and black but spare Jews,” as Levine allegedly asked his press office.
“Of course, saying that would be anti-Semitic,” he said. “But I didn’t say that. Levine is fabricating an opinion, attributing it to me, and trolling for scandal.”
Of course, saying that would be anti-Semitic. But I didn’t say that. Levine is fabricating an opinion, attributing it to me, and trolling for scandal.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 16, 2023
“By cynically leveling anti-Semitism charges, Levine devalues the term at a time when REAL anti-Semitism is rampant,” Kennedy said.
“What’s more, by using a racially-charged term, ‘sparing Jews,’ with its Biblical reference to Exodus, he is inflaming fear, hate, and suspicion.”
What’s more, by using a racially-charged term, “sparing Jews,” with its Biblical reference to Exodus, he is inflaming fear, hate, and suspicion.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 16, 2023
Kennedy had previously taken to Twitter on Saturday to cite a 2021 study on COVID-19 as a “proof of concept” that bioweapons could be used to target specific ethnic groups.
That study found, among other things, that “deleterious variants” in ACE2 receptors — where the SARS-CoV-2 virus “latches” onto, so to speak — were highest in “African-American” and “Non-Finnish European … populations,” relatively lower among East/South Asian and “Latino/Admixed American” populations, and lowest among the Amish and Ashkenazi Jewish populations.
The paper was authored by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic and Columbia University and funded by, inter alia, a grant from the National Institutes of Health, so this is hardly a fringe study by any stretch of the imagination.
The @nypost story is mistaken. I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews. I accurately pointed out — during an off-the-record conversation — that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 15, 2023
In a separate tweet, Kennedy also pointed toward “[c]opious documentation that yes, U.S. and China have both been developing bioweapons targeted at various genetic groups,” pointing toward a Substack post by Dr. Peter McCullough, another COVID-19 vaccine skeptic.
Copious documentation that yes, U.S. and China have both been developing bioweapons targeted at various genetic groups.https://t.co/i3ImFEL9XT
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 16, 2023
Now, how you feel about RFK Jr.’s remarks is one thing. How you feel about his sister and nephew coming out and denouncing him is another thing entirely.
Here’s Kerry Kennedy — another one of Robert F. Kennedy Sr.’s children and a human rights activist — telling the world, “I STRONGLY condemn my brother’s deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting.”
“His statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stands for, with our 50+ year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination,” she continued on Twitter — along with posting a link to a statement from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights foundation saying, well, exactly that.
His statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stands for, with our 50+ year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination.
— Kerry Kennedy (@KerryKennedyRFK) July 17, 2023
Meanwhile, former Democratic Rep. Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts — currently the U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland and RFK Jr.’s nephew — had this to say: “My uncle’s comments were hurtful and wrong. I unequivocally condemn what he said.”
My uncle’s comments were hurtful and wrong. I unequivocally condemn what he said.
— Joe Kennedy III (@joekennedy) July 17, 2023
However, all this served to do is take some of the heat off RFK Jr. and place it on Kerry Kennedy and Joe Kennedy III.
“Look at these terrible family members,” former Fox News host and current SiriusXM podcaster Megyn Kelly tweeted Monday. “No one was asking ‘how does RFKJ’s sister feel about his latest remarks?’ She just felt the need to kick @RobertKennedyJr when he was down. Nice.”
Look at these terrible family members. No one was asking “how does RFKJ’s sister feel about his latest remarks?” She just felt the need to kick @RobertKennedyJr when he was down. Nice. https://t.co/sYR2ZtQNFm
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) July 17, 2023
“The Kennedy family got the memo from The Party,” said Breitbart editor and SiriusXM host Joel Pollak, quote-tweeting Joe Kennedy III. “They are attacking RFK Jr. for something that he didn’t actually say. It is the mark of totalitarian systems that they are able to exploit family and intimate relationships to persecute dissidents on the basis of false accusations.”
The Kennedy family got the memo from The Party. They are attacking RFK Jr. for something that he didn’t actually say. It is the mark of totalitarian systems that they are able to exploit family and intimate relationships to persecute dissidents on the basis of false accusations. https://t.co/wxRdx1bVyv
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) July 17, 2023
“Honestly, why wouldn’t voters distrust the ruling class when they see them willing to sacrifice their own to preserve their social station?” tweeted conservative pundit and podcaster Rich Paris, again sharing Joe Kennedy III’s post. “What wouldn’t they do to normies they don’t even know if they’re perfectly fine throwing their own blood under the bus over a media smear?”
Honestly, why wouldn’t voters distrust the ruling class when they see them willing to sacrifice their own to preserve their social station?
What wouldn’t they do to normies they don’t even know if they’re perfectly fine throwing their own blood under the bus over a media smear? https://t.co/2o0Brg4DcV
— Rich Baris “The People’s Pundit” (@Peoples_Pundit) July 17, 2023
Well, that’s exactly the message the establishment of both parties wants to send to the “normies”: Stay down there and keep quiet. Keep real quiet. Else, the full weaponry of the system will be arrayed against you.
This is not to stand in RFK Jr.’s corner when it comes to his statements; he is a man who is, I repeat, frequently wrong when it comes to diseases and vaccines for them, and who found himself at a time and a place where the stopped clock happened to be stuck on the correct hour.
It’s also a source of endless entertainment to me to watch professional Democrats tear their own hair out over his relative popularity in polls for a fringe candidate as they somehow wonder why Joe Biden isn’t more popular.
Do you think RFK Jr. said anything wrong?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
That being said, his statements — kooky though one may believe them to be — weren’t facially vile, racist or anti-Semitic, nor is this a man who has a history of bigotry. In fact, the Democratic Party has elected officials who it will vigorously defend despite more obvious and frequently repeated evidence of racism or anti-Semitism (cough, cough, Ilhan Omar, cough).
Kennedy might expose Joe Biden’s flaws, though — so, naturally, we have to have an internecine squabble between members of the family on Twitter. And somebody thought this was going to erode RFK Jr.’s credibility.
Therein lies the issue with Kennedy-on-Kennedy violence, however: RFK Jr. is already an anti-establishment candidate, despite coming from the ultimate establishment Democrat family. If his siblings and other relatives want to take jabs at their own, they should understand from their comments on Twitter in the wake of this controversy that they’re just lending RFK Jr. authority, not taking it away.
The uniparty is real, and this is yet more proof.
