RFK Jr. claims Biden is greater threat to democracy than Trump, bashes effort to limit COVID misinformation
WASHINGTON – Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. argued that President Joe Biden is a greater threat to democracy than ex-President Donald Trump.
Kennedy, who has faced widespread criticism for spreading medical falsehoods and conspiracy theories, during an interview with CNN on Monday called out the Biden administration for working with social media companies to limit the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. Instagram had temporarily banned Kennedy for spreading false COVID-19 vaccine claims in 2021.
“President Biden is the much worse threat to democracy, and the reason for that is President Biden is the first candidate in history – the first president in history that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech, so to censor his opponent," Kennedy said.
Kennedy was not running for president when he was temporarily banned from Instagram. Social media platforms also regularly limit user accounts for spreading misinformation.
When asked about Trump's efforts targeting the results of the 2020 election, and his continued false claims that voter fraud impacted the race, Kennedy also called Trump a threat to democracy.
“But the question was, who is a worse threat to democracy and what I would say is … I’m not going to answer that question, but I can argue that President Biden is because the First Amendment... is the most important,” Kennedy said.
Biden's allies immediately criticized Kennedy over the comments. Mary Beth Cahill, a Democratic National Committee senior advisor, released a statement Monday following Kennedy’s remarks.
“There is no comparison to summoning a mob to the Capitol and promising to be a dictator on day one," Cahill said, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and Trump's comments at a Fox News town hall last year saying he would be a dictator on day one of his presidency. Trump has not been charged with inciting the Capitol riot.
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid to rest tonight any doubts that he’s a spoiler candidate by pushing his MAGA talking points in prime time," Cahill added.
Kennedy, a member of the storied political dynasty, has previously tried to defend claims that vaccines are linked to autism. Vaccines do not cause autism, according to experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health.
Kennedy also faced widespread backlash last year after he spread a conspiracy theory about Jewish and Asian Americans and COVID-19. Kennedy claimed there was an "argument" that the virus was "ethnically targeted" to spared the groups, a falsehood that organizations advocating for Jewish and Asian people called dangerous.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK Jr. argues Biden is greater threat to democracy than Trump