Top Democrat Slams RFK Jr.’s Past Vaccine Conspiracy Theories, Says House Republicans Have ‘Co-Signed On Idiotic, Bigoted Messaging’
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Weaponization of Government select subcommittee, Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI), tore in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ahead of his testimony before her committee and Thursday. Plaskett devoted much of her opening statement during the hearing on censorship to blast Kennedy for his past controversial statements and accused her House GOP colleagues of endorsing those statements by platforming Kennedy.
“Why are we here?” Plaskett began, arguing that the hearing did nothing to reduce inflation or help “the everyday lives of Americans.”
“Why would the Republican leadership in 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. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” Plaskett said, highlighting recent controversial comments from Kennedy.
“And before that, in his film ‘Medical Racism, The New Apartheid.’ That film stated that Covid-19 vaccines do not work for black children because of their, quote, ‘kick ass kind of immune system.’ That hyper superhuman, subhuman kind of language,” she continued, adding:
He also said even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did to imply Jews in Nazi Germany had more freedoms than unvaccinated Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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. This is not the kind of free speech that I know of, the free speech that is protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment.
Plaskett continued, turning her focus to the House GOP, “This Republican charge of free speech is being used by Republican members to promote quasi-science, things such as the replacement theory that says that Brown people are replacing good White Americans here in this country. Let’s not remember that this country first belonged to brown Native American people.”
“It’s a rallying cry for bigotry and hate,” she concluded, adding:
There are members of the Republican Conference who also frequently suggest that Americans who have to deal with Covid rules is the same as oppression of Nazi Germany. Indeed, some have even questioned whether the Holocaust took place. We have staffers who openly follow white supremacy without any condemnation of the Republican conference. Some give it chuckles, slaps on the back, shrugs. All under the mantra of free speech.
It’s a free country. You absolutely have a right to say what you believe, but you don’t have the right to a platform, public or private. We don’t have to give one of the largest platforms of our democracy, Congress, this hearing. Our right does not mean that we as Americans are not free from accountability.
“And that’s what’s distressing about this hearing. Even knowing what they know about Mr. Kennedy’s hateful evidence, free rhetoric, and even though they’ve invited any number of witnesses to make their point. Speaker McCarthy, chairman Jordan affirmatively chose to give this a platform,” she concluded, pointing to Kennedy.
“They intentionally chose to elevate this rhetoric to give these harmful, dangerous views a platform in the halls of the United States Congress. That’s endorsing that speech. That’s not just supporting free speech. They have cosigned on idiotic, bigoted messaging. It’s a conscious choice,” Plaskett concluded.
Watch the full clip above via Fox News.
