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THE DISGRACEFULNESS OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.  
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Robert Reich
February 13, 2024
RobertReich.org
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_ At a time when the truth is a precious common good, RFK Junior has
been spreading dangerous lies _

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces his candidacy for President of the
United States in a speech at Boston Park Plaza on April 19, 202, David
L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

 

Robert F. Kennedy Junior has apologized to relatives after his Super
Bowl ad last Sunday, which mirrored an ad broadcast by his uncle John
F. Kennedy’s campaign in 1960.

The Super Bowl ad included images of RFK Jr. spliced into the original
1960 ad and a jaunty jingle that repeated the Kennedy surname 15 times
in 30 seconds.

RFK Junior said the ad was the work of his SuperPAC and he had nothing
to do with it.

Rubbish. Junior placed the ad at the top of his X feed, and it
remained there Monday.

The ad cost $7 million. Timothy Mellon — grandson of Andrew Mellon
and an heir to the Mellon banking fortune — gave RFK Junior’s
SuperPAC $15 million.

Hmmm. Mellon is also a major donor to PACs supporting Trump. RFK
Junior’s candidacy is backed by a PAC that also funds Marjorie
Taylor Greene.

If not for his lustrous name, RFK Junior would be just another
crackpot in the growing pool of bottom-feeding right-wing fringe
politicians seeking to help Trump.

No one should doubt that Trump and Trump donors are behind RFK
Junior’s campaign, with the goal of siphoning off enough votes from
Biden to ensure a Trump victory.

How does RFK Junior intend to get on enough state ballots to hurt
Biden? As he told CNN last week
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he and officials from the Libertarian Party, which has ballot access,
"are talking."

In a poll
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conducted late last year, RFK Junior was supported by 22 percent of
respondents and a greater number of independent voters than either
President Biden or Trump. In January, Gallup reported
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that 52 percent of Americans view RFK Junior favorably — a higher
percentage than either Biden (41 percent) or Trump (42 percent)
received.

These results reflect the popularity of the Kennedy name and
dissatisfaction with the likely nominees of the major parties. In
addition, RFK Junior has not received the public scrutiny that
presidential candidates inevitably get.

It’s time to lift the curtain on a campaign based on false,
irresponsible and self-contradictory claims.

At a time when the truth is a precious common good, RFK Junior has
been spreading dangerous lies.

He claims
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that COVID-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people”
and that “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and
Chinese.”

And that “the Chinese are spending hundreds of millions of dollars
developing ethnic bioweapons and we are developing ethnic bioweapons.
They’re collecting Russian DNA. They’re collecting Chinese DNA so
we can target people by race.”

RFK Junior has also promoted the baseless claim linking vaccines to
autism. He’s been a leading proponent of COVID-19 vaccine
misinformation
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erroneously suggesting the vaccine has killed more people than it has
saved.

In his 2021 book, _The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and
the Global War on Democracy and Public Health
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without plausible evidence, that Dr. Fauci performed “genocidal
experiments, sabotaged treatments for AIDS, and conspired with Bill
Gates to suppress information about COVID-19.” This is libelous
nonsense.

RFK Junior’s misinformation about vaccines continues to endanger
public health.

Friends, I knew Robert F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy Junior is no
Robert F. Kennedy.

I worked in Robert F. Kennedy’s Senate office in 1967. It wasn’t a
glamorous job. I ran the signature machine. But I did have a chance to
get to see Bobby Kennedy
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I watched Robert F. Kennedy stand up for economic and social justice.
I witnessed him bringing together people of every race and ethnicity
— to demand equal rights and an end to the Vietnam War.

The Kennedy brand is political gold, and it could pull away just
enough unwitting Democratic voters to tip the race to Trump.

Robert F. Kennedy would never have suggested that a deadly virus was
targeted at certain races. He wouldn’t have repeated the trope,
dating at least to the Middle Ages, that Jews unleashed a plague on
non-Jews.

Another contrast with his father and his uncle: In 1962, President
John F. Kennedy signed the Vaccination Assistance Act in order to, in
the words of a CDC report
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as quickly as possible the protection of the population, especially of
all preschool children ... through intensive immunization activity.”

If not for his lustrous name, RFK Junior would be just another
crackpot in the growing pool of bottom-feeding right-wing fringe
politicians seeking to help Trump.

But the Kennedy brand is political gold, and it could pull away just
enough unwitting Democratic voters to tip the race to Trump.

Democracy won by a whisker in 2020. Just 44,000 votes in Arizona,
Georgia, and Wisconsin decided the outcome. If RFK Junior or any
third-party candidate peels off just a fraction of the vote from
Biden, while Trump’s base stays with him, they will deliver a
victory to Trump.

That the good name of the Robert F. Kennedy I worked for 57 years ago
is being used to increase the risk of a Trump victory is beyond
shameful.

If Junior had any respect for the principles his father fought and
ultimately died for, he would withdraw his candidacy immediately.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
3.0 License.

 

Robert Reich [[link removed]]
Robert Reich, is the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the
University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum
Center

* Robert F. Kennedy Jr
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