From vaccines to Nazis: Democrats attack Republicans by listing RFK Jr’s most outrageous claims at hearing
The IndependentSign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The top Democrat on House Republicans’ select subcommittee on the weaponisation of the government excoriated House Republicans for giving a platform to presidential candidate and vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr. Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan had invited Mr Kennedy and other witnesses to testify about supposed censorship of various views by tech companies and the federal government. “Why would the Republican leadership and the committee majority give a hearing and a platform to the witnesses today, specifically to Mr Kennedy, a man who has recently claimed that COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people,” she said. She also cited the fact that Mr Kennedy’s documentary, Medical Racism: The New Apartheid, said that Covid-19 vaccines did not work on Black children because of their heightened immune system, which she called “hyper superhuman subhuman kind of language.” “Now, many of my Republican colleagues across the dais will rush to cover that they have Mr. Kennedy here because they want to protect his free speech, that they do not believe in American censorship,” she said. Free speech is not an absolute.” Ms Plaskett’s remarks specifically said that Congress did not have to give a platform to someone who had spouted conspiracy theories.