Storming the Hill, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
by Garth Meyer
Independent U.S. Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is scheduled to hold a campaign fundraiser at a private home in Palos Verdes on the evening of Thursday, April 18.
In anticipation of his visit, Kennedy agreed to an interview with Peninsula magazine. The phone interview took place on March 9, two days after President Biden’s State of the Union address.
What did you think of the State of the Union, both the speech and the atmosphere?
I thought President Biden was energetic, which was very encouraging, but I thought it was hyperpartisan, not a statesmen-like State of the Union, but like a convention. Red meat for his base.
The atmosphere?
It was something I hadn’t seen before at a State of the Union. The Democrats were acting like it was a convention. I was struck by the Democrats and their reaction to Ukraine, cheering for more war, and the Republicans sitting on their hands. I grew up in a Democratic Party that (was the opposite). That same day, I met with Las Vegas Indian Tribes, who had the highest death rate of anyone in the world during COVID. What we are sending to Ukraine in two weeks could (be used elsewhere). We have people starving, who are sick… That’s a crisis.
In the Tucker Carlson interview, Putin says he wants to negotiate. In April 2022, a peace agreement was worked out, to keep NATO out of Ukraine (but) Zelensky tore up the agreement…
If you could do one thing right now, as president, by executive order, what would it be?
The first would be to ban pharmaceutical advertising on television. The ads control the content. They’re controlling what Anderson Cooper can tell you. The people who are giving us the information (are) censoring it … Second executive order: forbid federal employees who collude with social media companies to censor free speech. Third: close military bases abroad. Fourth: stop the FDA from taking half of its budget from pharmaceutical companies. The people have been transformed into sock puppets for the industries they’re supposed to regulate.
You made a previous statement that your aim is to convince Democrats they’re not Democrats and Republicans they’re not Republicans. Would you expand on that?
My aim is to convince Democrats they’re no longer Democrats, they’re Americans. And to convince Republicans they are no longer Republicans, they are Americans. The fighting, the rancor, it benefits Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Black Rock; we’re not talking about those issues. The reason we don’t talk about it is because of all of these culture war issues that lead to nowhere… Trump in a single term ran up $8 trillion in debt, more than 30 presidents before him. And Biden continued that.
Why run now, for your first political office?
I saw my party turn against free speech. I just won a case called “Kennedy vs. Biden,” about Biden ordering companies to take me off platforms. Instagram and Facebook do not want to have to vet … They invented the term ‘malinformation:’ accurate but inconvenient to the government. The U.S. government has not encouraged that kind of censorship previously in its history. Siri and Alexa are not working for you, they’re working for the NSA. Government never had the technology before now to do this.
(Peninsula note – on Feb. 14, in a lawsuit alleging government censorship of Kennedy’s social media statements against vaccines, he won a preliminary injunction against the White House and other federal defendants. The injunction will be stayed until a Supreme Court ruling on a related case filed by the states of Louisiana and Missouri.)
Any power that government has, it will abuse to the ultimate extent possible. For COVID, we shut down churches, businesses, we violated the First Amendment Right to Assemble. The Constitution was written for hard times, it was not written for easy times. That was a lesson forgotten during COVID. (The framers) didn’t make an exception for pandemics, they had a smallpox epidemic during the Revolutionary War …
What if the government shutdowns were put in by people honestly just trying to save lives?
The Constitution is more important than anything.
If elected, who would you appoint for your cabinet? Old-line Democrats? Independents?
The best people I can get, and I’m not going to even ask what party they are.
What could the average American do now to address your health crisis points?
Stop eating sugar, white flour, don’t eat processed foods.
How would your life have been different had you not been a Kennedy?
I have no idea. That’s a crazy question.
What is the best invention of the last 30 years? What is the worst?
A.I., to both of those.
Kennedy, Jr., 71, is the third of 11 children of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy. He filed to run for president last April as a Democrat, then announced an independent run in October.
An environmental lawyer, beginning in the 1980s, Kennedy, Jr., worked to help clean up the Hudson River, suing municipalities to gain compliance with the Clean Water Act. He co-founded the WaterKeeper Alliance, which protects waterways in the U.S. and abroad. In recent years, Kennedy, Jr., has spoken out against childhood vaccines – making claims they cause autism – as well as vaccine mandates and other measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Four siblings of his have denounced his presidential run, calling it “dangerous” for the country.
He is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, a U.S. Senator and attorney general of the United States.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will appear at a fundraiser April 18 in Palos Verdes at a private residence at 6 p.m. To attend contact organizers at events@teamkennedy.com