Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday accused Joe Biden and Donald Trump of trampling on personal freedoms in response to the pandemic that spanned their entire presidencies.
Kennedy, who has long claimed to be the victim of government and media censorship because of his unorthodox views, said Americans have lost faith in their politicians and institutions and promised to restore it.
“Maybe a brain worm has eaten this part of my memory, but I can’t remember any part of the U.S. Constitution that makes an exception for pandemics,” Kennedy said, citing a New York Times report that he was diagnosed with a parasite that had taken up residence in his brain over a decade ago.
“None of them defended the Constitution when it really mattered,” he said of the current and former presidents.
Kennedy spoke at the Libertarian Party convention in Washington to expand his voting base among Americans dissatisfied with the Republican and Democratic parties. He has formed alliances with smaller parties across the ideological spectrum to get on the ballot in November and participate in the debates next month.
Kennedy spoke publicly of seeking the Libertarian Party nomination to secure ballot access, sparking controversy within the party as some members objected to supporting a candidate who did not always agree with their narrow views on government. His mere presence at the convention was controversial, with some delegates attempting to ban him from speaking. Kennedy was not on the list of nominees from which a Libertarian presidential candidate will be chosen on Saturday.
Kennedy, who bears the name of one of the Democratic Party’s most renowned political dynasties, acknowledged his differences with libertarians but focused on his view that the Biden and Trump administrations had exceeded their authority during the pandemic.
Trump was wrong to shut down businesses and exempt companies from liability that were developing products to fight the pandemic. And Biden violated Americans’ basic freedoms with his support for vaccine mandates, Kennedy said. The regulations, aimed at vaccinating up to 100 million workers, were partially blocked by courts and Congress, and most of the rest were repealed in 2023, with the Biden administration touting them as enormously useful.
Kennedy also took aim at social media companies that he said had succumbed to government pressure to suppress dissenting views on the origins of Covid-19 and the safety of vaccines.
“Democratic and Republican administrations have alternately attacked our Constitutional rights and freedoms,” Kennedy said.
He reiterated his pledge to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is fighting extradition from the UK on espionage charges in the US, and to drop charges against Edward Snowden, a former intelligence contractor who exposed secret US surveillance programs that collected communications and data from around the world.
Trump is scheduled to speak at the Libertarian Party’s convention on Saturday, trying to win over a largely conservative electorate that is often skeptical of him, while also trying to avoid turning attendees toward Kennedy.
The safety and effectiveness of vaccines have been proven in laboratory tests and in practical operate on hundreds of millions of people over decades. The World Health Organization estimates that childhood vaccines can prevent up to 5 million deaths each year.
The COVID-19 vaccine has been shown to be safe and sound and effective in testing and in real-world operate. While no medical procedure is risk-free, doctors and researchers have proven that the risks of disease in general are far greater than the risks of vaccination.
An anti-vaccine group led by Kennedy has filed a lawsuit against several news organizations, including the Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking steps to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy left the group when he announced his run for president, but is listed in the lawsuit as one of its attorneys.
