Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press
38 minutes ago
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during the Libertarian National Convention at the Washington Hilton in Washington, Friday, May 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday accused Joe Biden and Donald Trump of trampling on individual liberties in their response to the pandemic during their presidencies.
Kennedy, who has long argued he was the victim of government and media censorship of his unorthodox views, said Americans had lost faith in their leaders and institutions and vowed to restore it.
“Maybe a brain parasite has eaten away at some of my memory, but I don't think there's any clause in the U.S. Constitution that makes an exception for a pandemic,” Kennedy said, referring to a New York Times report that he was diagnosed with a brain parasite more than a decade ago.
“Both of them failed to uphold the Constitution when it really mattered,” he said of the current and former presidents.
Mr Kennedy, speaking at the Libertarian Party convention in Washington, is seeking to cultivate a base of support among Americans disaffected with the Republican and Democratic parties. He is lining up with smaller parties across the ideological spectrum to get on the ballot in November and take part in debates next month.
Kennedy has spoken publicly about seeking the Libertarian Party nomination as a way to secure voting rights, but he has stirred controversy within the party. Some party members objected to supporting a candidate who didn't necessarily align with their views of limited government. His mere attendance at the convention sparked controversy, with some delegates trying to ban him from speaking. Kennedy is not on the Libertarian Party's slate of candidates to be selected Saturday for the party's presidential nominee.
Kennedy, who bears the name of one of the Democratic Party's most famous political families, acknowledged his differences with the libertarian wing but focused his appeal on his view that the Biden and Trump administrations have overstepped their authority during the pandemic.
Kennedy said Trump was wrong to shut down businesses and shield companies from liability for developing products to address the pandemic, and that Biden had violated Americans' fundamental freedoms by supporting vaccine mandates. The mandates, which aimed to require up to 100 million workers to get vaccinated, have been partially blocked by the courts and Congress, with most of the rest set to expire in 2023 and touted by the Biden administration as extremely beneficial.
Kennedy also criticized social media companies for bowing to government pressure to block dissent about the origins of COVID-19 and the safety of vaccines.
“Democratic and Republican administrations have taken turns violating our constitutional rights and freedoms,” Kennedy said.
President Trump pardoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is fighting extradition from Britain to face U.S. espionage charges, and reiterated his promise to drop charges against Edward Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who exposed secret U.S. surveillance programs that obtain communications and data around the world.
Trump is scheduled to speak at the Libertarian Convention on Saturday, where he will try to appeal to conservative voters skeptical of him while ensuring attendees don't gravitate toward Kennedy.
Vaccines have been proven safe and effective in laboratory tests and in real-world use in hundreds of millions of people over decades. The World Health Organization estimates that childhood vaccines prevent as many as 5 million deaths a year.
COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in trials and in real-world use. While no medical intervention is without risk, doctors and researchers have demonstrated that the risks from disease are generally far greater than the risks from vaccines.
The anti-vaccination group led by Kennedy is suing multiple news organizations, including the Associated Press, for violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation about COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines, etc. Kennedy took a leave of absence from the group when he announced his candidacy for the presidential election, but is listed as one of the group's lawyers in the lawsuit.
