Some activists do not want Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to testify before Congress about COVID-19 and freedom of speech.
A left-wing advocacy group sent a letter over the weekend to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) about Kennedy’s scheduled testimony. Jordan is the chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
Kennedy, a 2024 candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination against President Joe Biden, is scheduled to testify Thursday about freedom of speech.
Last week, a video emerged of Kennedy saying COVID-19 might have had a more significant impact on some ethnic groups than others.
“COVID-19 — there is an argument that it is ethnically targeted,” Kennedy said, according to the Washington Examiner. “COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately.” He added that Jews were “most immune” to the virus.
When Jewish advocacy groups objected to the video, Kennedy wrote on Twitter that his comments were misunderstood. He said COVID-19 was “proof of concept for ethnically targeted bioweapons” because of its disproportionate effect on certain races and ethnicities.
“I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews,” Kennedy said.
Congressional Integrity Project Executive Director Kyle Herrig wrote the letter asking for Kennedy to be removed from the witness list.
“Not only is he a known conspiracy theorist whose anti-vaccine views have put lives in jeopardy, a Russian propagandist who has sided with Putin over Ukraine, and a total whack job whose views and conspiracy theories would be completely ignored but for his last name, but we now have video evidence of his horrific antisemitic and xenophobic views which are simply beyond the pale,” Herrig wrote.
This was not the first time Kennedy has drawn condemnation from Jewish groups. In January 2022, Kennedy said Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who died in a Nazi concentration camp, had more freedom than people living under vaccine mandates.
After creating a stir with these remarks, Kennedy said he was “deeply sorry,” according to CNBC.
Other witnesses scheduled to testify on Thursday include Emma-Jo Morris, a journalist from Breitbart News, and Special Assistant Attorney General D. John Sauer of Louisiana, according to The Hill.
The subcommittee’s hearing will focus on the federal government’s role in censoring U.S. residents and a lawsuit against Missouri’s pro-gun bills. It also will look at possible collusion between the federal government and Big Tech and social media companies in limiting speech.
Kennedy’s Instagram account was reinstated in June after being suspended in 2021 for allegedly posting misinformation about COVID-19.