Matt Bennett Profile picture
Co-founder & EVP for Public Affairs, Third Way Long-Suffering Syracuse fan. On Bluesky: @thirdwaymattb.bsky.social

May 1, 2024, 18 tweets

It's time to talk about @RobertKennedyJr. Because despite his royal Democratic lineage, he is a right-wing, MAGA-aligned crank. It is vital that voters considering Kennedy know this about him.

Here's a thread with just SOME of the evidence. There's more. A lot more. 🧵

Let's start with the latest: RFK, Jr. will appear on the CA ballot under the banner of the far-right American Independent Party, which nominated George Wallace, in 1968. Wallace was running as an overt racist. ("Segregation Now, Segregation Forever!") 2/

And that's no surprise. Because the far right has embraced RFK, Jr. as one of their own. Take a minute to check out this video. It's tells you all you need to know about the guy: 3/

As you saw in that short set of clips (and again, there's more), MAGA world ❤️❤️❤️RFK. Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Tucker Carlson, Charlie Kirk, Alex Jones, and others have heaped on the attention and praise. 4/

And the MAGA King agrees. He's floated the idea of RFK joining him on the GOP ticket: “I like Trump-Kennedy…I like the way that sounds." (NYT 4/5/24) 5/

RFK, Jr. likes the idea of working with Trump, too. He said that at a Trump Tower meeting in 2017, Trump "asked me to run a vaccine safety commission,” which he was eager to do before HHS "shut it down." PatriotTakes (7/31/23) 6/

Kennedy is still pondering working with Trump. He told Laura Ingraham, "‘I would have to think about [serving in the Trump cabinet],’ adding he ‘would not reject that out of hand.'" 7/

This mutual lovefest isn't surprising when you look at his, um, "ideas."

"COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” NY Post (7/15/23) 8/
nypost.com/2023/07/15/rfk…

RFK also said "‘WIFI radiation’ could be causing autism, food allergies, asthma, eczema, or other chronic illnesses…‘I think it degrades your mitochondria and it opens your blood-brain barrier.’” Vice News (6/16/23)

That's General Jack D Ripper-level right-wing nuttery. 9/

RFK, Jr. published a book called "The Real Anthony Fauci and another called "The Wuhan Cover Up."

Remind you of anybody? Think orange skin, red hat. 10/
theglobeandmail.com/world/article-…

Or maybe RFK, Jr's rhetoric will ring a Trumpian bell. On immigration: “I would shut down the border and do it immediately, even if it took deploying the military,” 11/

On democracy: RFK: “President Biden is a much worse threat to democracy [than Trump.'” CNN (4/1/24)
He also said some Jan 6 prosecutions are "politically motivated." AP (4/5/24)
12/

On reproductive rights: “So you would cap [abortion] at 15 weeks?” RFK Jr.: "Yes, yes, yes, for three months…Once the child is viable outside the womb, I think the state has an interest in protecting that child..." NBC News (8/14/23) 13/

On guns: “SSRIs have black box labels and benzos that say ‘known to cause suicidal and homicidal behavior’…one thing we do know—[mass shootings have] nothing to do with the number of guns…[the number of guns] has been roughly constant.” American Values (4/27/24) 14/

On Russia: "[Ukraine] is a war that we started, that we provoked” NBC (8/14/23)

That is either Putin-fed misinformation or a Mar-a-Lago fever dream. 15/

Even on the environment, Kennedy sounds a lot more like MAGA world than his former colleagues in the green movement. They call him a "'dangerous conspiracy theorist and a science denier'” and have united behind a call for him to drop out. 16/
nytimes.com/2024/04/19/cli…

So all in all, he's pretty Trumpy!

And Trump's backers know it: The RFK super PAC's biggest donor is "Timothy Mellon, who contributed $15 million to MAGA Inc, the premiere pro-Trump super PAC, this election cycle.” Rolling Stone (2/26/24) 17/

Everyone in the anti-Trump coalition must be shouting it from the rooftops: RFK, Jr. isn't just a spoiler for Trump, he's Trump's ally and a MAGA fellow-traveler.
END/

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