In theory, conspiracy crank Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is both running for president and claims to be outraged when anyone suggests he has allied himself with Nazis. In practice, Kennedy's presidential run is a publicity stunt at best—and damn do white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other antisemitic groups love this guy. And why wouldn't they, when he keeps propping up their favorite conspiracy claims?
You may remember, unfortunately, Kennedy’s recent boozy New York City press dinner that, as the tabloid Page Six put it, "descended into a foul bout of screaming and polemic farting," which sounds like more of a Steve Bannon thing but what do we know. It was there that Kennedy piped up with the theory that COVID-19 was "ethnically targeted."
“COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy said. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
“We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact,” Kennedy hedged.
This was another iteration of Kennedy's claims that China and the U.S. both have been "developing ethnic bioweapons," and that "they're collecting Russian DNA, they're collecting Chinese DNA" for the purpose, and as you can imagine the antisemitic far right is absolutely giddy with Kennedy's latest burps. Neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, and other antisemites praised it as "100% correct" and "perhaps the greatest thing he ever said."
That's not exactly surprising since Kennedy is parroting a neo-Nazi claim to begin with. From the pandemic's beginning, the same violence-peddling antisemitic whackjobs who believe "the Jews" are behind all world events were keen to come up with reasons why "the Jews" were behind the emergence of a new deadly pandemic disease or the new vaccine helping to protect the world from it. This is because they are dirtbags.
But Kennedy has based his whole recent career on listening to and appealing to dirtbags, so there really was no plausible chance he wouldn't latch on to the same theories.
For the record, Kennedy is stupid. In general, to be sure, but specifically about this. If anything, studies suggest that Jewish people have been disproportionately harmed by COVID. Kennedy's assertion that those of Chinese descent were similarly spared appears to come from Kennedy's willingness to believe the Chinese government's own ludicrous undercounts of pandemic deaths, which would mean that Kennedy is actually more willing here to believe even Chinese government claims than actual scientists. If that doesn't sum up the anti-vaccine conspiracy whackjob's whole career, I'm not sure what would.
Kennedy's claims here, however, do not only resonate with the neo-Nazi groups whose views he’s parroting. For years now, Kennedy has clung to the far right as a major base of support, and Republican donors have been showering him with cash so that he can keep doing it.
Judd Legum has a new report on the fundraising side and notes that "the lion's share of Kennedy's biggest donors have previously only donated to Republicans."
Through June 30, Kennedy's campaign has collected the maximum, $6,600, from 96 individuals. Of that group, 37 individuals have previously only donated to Republican candidates for federal office. Only 19 have a history of consistently supporting Democratic candidates. The remainder either have no giving history (30), have donated to members of both parties (8), or supported Libertarian or alternative candidates (2).
That's not too surprising given Kennedy's eagerness to promote his ever-shifting conspiracy agenda on antisemitic and white supremacist venues like Gab, or with the fascism-promoting Michael Flynn and his "ReAwaken America" tour.
He also has the favor of pardoned felon Steve Bannon and the seditionist Donald Trump himself. He'll be spewing his pandemic conspiracy theories directly to the House Republican committee on the "weaponization" of the government by Not Republicans, thanks to the invitation of sexual molestation enabler Jim Jordan.
Kennedy's voting base might consist of neo-Nazis, antisemites, and anti-vaccine QAnon whackadoos, but his powerbase seems to come mostly from Republicans most known for doing crimes. Kennedy himself has dipped into the "Republicans doing crimes" genre, with his anti-vaccine "Children's Health Defense" group illegally donating $50,000 to the hard-right Republican Attorneys General Association.
It would be fascinating to find out how Kennedy just happened to repeat one of the most ridiculous antisemitic conspiracy theories peddled by neo-Nazi groups, but the answer is probably simple. He hangs out in all the places antisemites congregate; he probably was told this one backstage before or after one of his many, many promotional appearances with far-right groups that trade in such claims, and his brain, already marinated in every other conspiracy theory the world has on offer, thought it sounded great enough to repeat.
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