And new this morning,
John F
Kennedy,
his grandson,
not mincing words
when it comes to his cousin RFK
Junior's 2024 run
He's trading in on Camelot,
celebrity conspiracy theories
and conflict for personal gain and fame.
I've listened to him I know him.
I have no idea
why anyone thinks he should be president.
What I do know is
his candidacy is an embarrassment.
Jack Schlossberg
took to Instagram
to blast Robert F Kennedy's
constant stream of misinformation
and he endorsed Joe Biden in the process.
Congressional Democrats grilling
Robert F Kennedy
Junior on Capitol Hill yesterday.
The month
long shot
Democratic candidate for president.
He testified at a hearing on censorship.
It was questioned about his past comments
implying Jews had more freedom
during the Holocaust
than unvaccinated Americans
did during the pandemic.
CNN's Eva McKend is in Washington.
And Eva,
it was a contentious hearing, to say
the least. What did you see?
Yes, indeed, Phil, fireworks indeed.
Listen, Democrats
tried to shut this down all together.
They wrote a letter
to Republican leadership
in the wake of Kennedy's
controversial comments
asking them to rescind his invitation
when they tried to bring the hearing
into executive session
so it wouldn't
play out in this public way,
all to no avail.
Let's look at how it all went down
Democratic
presidential candidate
and spreader of vaccine misinformation.
Robert Kennedy, jr.
Invited to testify on Capitol Hill
excuse my words.
The witnesses time do not censor
the witness on not censoring the witness.
I'm not censoring the witness.
He still is.
In a testy hearing on censorship
with kennedy telling the committee
his views are protected speech.
The First Amendment
was not a very easy speech.
It was written for a speech
that nobody likes
before i was censored,
not just a democratic administration.
I was censored
by the trump administration.
Democrats accused
republican leadership
of giving kennedy's dangerous rhetoric
a platform in congress
that's not just supporting free speech.
They have cosigned on idiotic,
bigoted messaging.
It's a conscious choice
regarding Kennedy's blatant lies,
where he said
COVID 19 is targeted to attack
Caucasians and
black people.
The people who oppose me are asking like
Jews and and Chinese.
Now, Kennedy
brazenly claims, I'm under oath
in my entire life.
I have never uttered a phrase
that was either racist or anti-Semitic.
I have spent my life
fighting my professional career
fighting for Israel.
But the CEO of the American
Jewish Committee
called his prior
remarks deeply offensive
and incredibly dangerous.
Kennedy repeatedly claimed
he didn't say things that are,
in fact, on camera.
I've never been anti-vaccine
Everybody in this room
probably believes that I happen
because that's the prevailing narrative.
I have never told the public
to avoid vaccination.
But Kennedy has attacked safe vaccines,
including the COVID 19 vaccine,
and promoted false
claims like childhood vaccines
can lead to autism
and that HIV was caused
by vaccine research.
Even saying this on a 2021 podcast,
I see somebody on a hiking trail with a
little baby
vaccinated tweet from Mr.
Kennedy.
Another key driver for the GOP
led hearing
is to call out what they deem
was social media censorship
of a damning Hunter Biden story.
This was illegal government
censorship to protect
and prop up Joe Biden
on the eve of the 2020 election
but Democrats argue
misinformation is the larger threat.
They want to force
social media companies
to promote
conspiracy theories
because they think that's the only way
their candidate
can win the 2024 election.
Now despite some of Kennedy's
outlandish claims
he still does enjoy some support.
In the latest Quinnipiac poll
he's at 14% among Democrats
and likely Democratic voters.
Still, it's
going to be quite difficult for him
as he takes on President Biden
in the Democratic primary field.
All right, McCann, thank you.
And let's bring in now
CNN senior legal analyst Ellie
Honing and national political reporter
for the Associated Press, Michelle Price.
Michelle,
Republicans seem hellbent
on elevating RFK Jr.
I think
that seems the takeaway from
this hearing, not just because
of the censorship accusations,
but just politically that.
14% that Eva was talking about.
A lot of that is name recognition.
A lot of that is nostalgia
among Democrats for the Kennedy name.
But this is someone who has this
long history of outlandish, dangerous
and informed statements.
And he's being elevated by Republicans
because he might hurt Biden.
It's unclear
what political benefit
there is to giving him this platform.
I mean,
the entire
purpose of this hearing
purportedly was to examine
censorship
on these on these tech platforms.
You know,
his message is getting out there.
The video of it was published
by a newspaper.
At the end of the day,
this hearing did not examine
what these tech policies are,
but it was an examination
of RFK comments,
which Republicans
and Democrats said that they disagreed
with and found very objectionable.
Do you feel like Democrats?
The interesting thing
about the hearing itself,
we knew it was going to be a
political food fight. Right.
That was kind of a given to some degree.
And I think Democrats have made
very clear
they didn't want RFK up there
to begin with.
But if there's going to be
they're going to attack him
based on his past statements.
But do you feel like
this has a tangible impact
on the Democratic primary to the extent
it is anything that exists at this point?
I mean, it's unclear.
It's too early to see.
Why are those poll numbers
going to change?
He has a very famous last name,
especially in New Hampshire.
There's a lot of proximity to Boston
It's unclear
how this is going to land
as this continues.
But this is a long shot campaign.
He's going up against
an incumbent president.
And again, I mean, his comments,
you know, they speak for himself
and he has a long history
of offensive comments here,
that it's unclear how this could help Mr.
Kennedy to have his own comments
shown so publicly.
I don't know how he's become this
sort of martyr for censorship.
I mean, here's
a guy who's in national media
all the time.
He has millions and millions of views
on various social media sites.
He just testified in Congress.
I think he's mischaracterizing
what censorship is.
The government has not shut him down.
To the contrary,
our Congress just gave him a platform.
And I think, look,
I believe very broadly
in the First Amendment,
I think the solution is somewhat
what we saw yesterday.
We saw
men and women in Congress
pushing back and fact checking them
and if I can, you know,
even as package
does there,
I think exposed some of the mistruths.
That's you know,
they say the remedy for bad
speech is more speech.
And I think that's
how this is playing out.