President Biden’s chief Democratic rival in the 2024 race on Thursday rejected claims he is antisemitic and bemoaned tech censorship and the “toxic polarization that is destroying our country today.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who caused a recent uproar with comments about COVID-19, said he did not say anything negative about Jewish people in remarks at a recent dinner that suggested the coronavirus might have been targeted at White and Black people while sparing Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
“If you think I said something antisemitic, let’s talk about the details,” Mr. Kennedy told the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the weaponization of government.
Democrats on the panel took aim at Mr. Kennedy from the outset.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida moved to shift the hearing into executive session, arguing Mr. Kennedy had promoted an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Republicans who control the panel rejected the move, dubbing it censorship.
The issue stems from comments Mr. Kennedy made this month at a New York restaurant.
“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” he said at a recent dinner event. “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 incident sparked widespread condemnation, including from within Mr. Kennedy’s family.
“I STRONGLY condemn my brother’s deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about COVID being engineered for ethnic targeting,” his sister Kerry Kennedy wrote on Twitter.
Mr. Kennedy scolded Democrats who signed a letter calling for Republicans to disinvite him from congressional testimony.
“In my entire life I have never uttered a phrase that was either racist or antisemitic,” he said, adding he has a long record of defending Israel.
Mr. Kennedy, 69, is running for president as a Democrat. While he is seen as little threat to Mr. Biden’s front-runner position, he is attracting double-digit support in some polling, even reaching over 20%, indicating ripples of dissatisfaction among some Democrats with the incumbent.
During Thursday’s testimony, Mr. Kennedy defended his record and political ambitions, saying working-class people can no longer afford to live in the U.S. He claimed he was de-platformed online during his campaign launch speech in Boston.
“I didn’t talk about vaccines in that speech. I didn’t talk about anything that [people viewed as] as a verboten subject,” Mr. Kennedy said. “I was shut down.”
Mr. Kennedy, the son of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, referred to his famous family multiple times during his testimony and outlined a broad vision of restoring comity and bipartisanship in Washington.
“We have to stop trying to destroy each other,” he said.
Republicans invited Mr. Kennedy as part of a broader look at the nexus between government officials and online censorship.
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, pointed to Biden administration officials who tried to censor Mr. Kennedy’s tweet about Hank Aaron’s death in 2021 and the fact the baseball legend had recently received the COVID-19 vaccine.
Mr. Jordan said it was an instance of the administration working with Twitter to try and suppress tweets that included simple facts.
The hearing also focused on efforts to suppress stories about Mr. Biden’s son and his famous laptop, while Mr. Kennedy was hailed by Republicans for his work on environmental matters and children’s health.
Democrats fumed over the session, saying people are free to say what they want but should not promote hateful rhetoric or conspiracy theories. They also said the GOP majority’s decision to invite Mr. Kennedy was conspicuous.
“Any attack on Joe Biden to get Donald Trump back in the White House is what they need to do,” Stacey E. Plaskett, a Democratic House delegate and nonvoting member from the Virgin Islands, said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.