RFK Jr. calls Biden greater ‘threat to our democracy’ than Trump in scathing rebuke
Independent presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reiterated Tuesday that he believes President Biden presents a greater threat to democracy than former President Donald Trump.
“Biden has done something that no other president in history has done, which is to order media — particularly social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google — to censor his political opponents,” the 70-year-old told “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday.
“If you have a president who can censor his political opponents, he has the license for any kind of atrocity — that is a genuine threat to our democracy.”
Efforts by the Biden administration to flag content for social media companies to moderate, especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, have been subject to litigation before the Supreme Court.
Justices on the high court heard oral arguments last month in a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s actions.
In the summer of 2021, the White House approvingly cited a report labeling Kennedy one of a “disinformation dozen” who disseminated wrong information about COVID-19 vaccines.
On Monday night, Kennedy caused a stir by telling CNN that he “can make the argument that President Biden is much worse” than Trump in terms of protecting democracy, drawing swift backlash from Democrats.
“With a straight face, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that Joe Biden is a bigger threat to democracy than Donald Trump because he was barred from pushing conspiracy theories online,” Democratic National Committee senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement.
“There is no comparison to summoning a mob to the Capitol and promising to be a dictator on day one. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid to rest tonight any doubts that he’s a spoiler candidate.”
“All of this, the use of the courts, the use of prosecutors, the use of all these federal agencies to change our political landscape, it just is wrong, and we should be debating about it,” Kennedy told Fox News Tuesday.
“You had all these federal agencies that were now able to silence people who were questioning their policies.”
Biden and his allies have framed the 2024 election as a referendum on Trump’s purported autocratic leanings and his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
During his CNN interview Monday, Kennedy added that he believes the violence of that day was “clearly a threat” to the republic.
“I think that is a threat to democracy if we’re trying to overthrow the election, clearly a threat,” he told CNN. “But the question was, ‘Who was a worse threat to democracy?'” he added.
The environmental lawyer and son of the late attorney general and senator from New York has drawn fire from both Trump’s and Biden’s campaigns, which fear he could siphon votes away from them on Nov. 5.
Last month, Trump claimed that Kennedy is more “radical Left” than Biden, while the incumbent president has paraded his endorsements from other Kennedy family members.
In a three-way matchup, Trump is scoring 40.7% support, compared to Biden’s 35.3% and Kennedy’s 12.3%, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polls.
Kennedy will need to top 15% in select polling in order to secure a place on the debate stage later this fall.
