Jewish and Asian Democrats call on Republicans to disinvite Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from testifying in Congress about censorship due to antisemitic and anti-Asian comments.
Democrats sent a letter to Representatives Kevin McCarthy of California, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, requesting Republicans to disinvite Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from testifying in Congress about censorship, after the vaccine conspiracy theorist and Democratic presidential candidate said COVID-19 was „ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese, reports The Jerusalem Post.
Kennedy claimed that COVID-19 was „targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people, adding that „the people who are most immune are Ashkenazic Jews and Chinese. We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not, but there are papers out there that show the racial and ethnic differential of impact.”
The letter requesting the revoking of the invitation to Kennedy to testify in Congress was initiated by Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Dan Goldman of New York, who are Jewish, and Judy Chu of California, who is Chinese American, and was signed by 102 Democrats.
„Mr Kennedy has repeatedly and recently spread vile and dangerous antisemitic and anti-Asian conspiracy theories that tarnish his credibility as a witness and must not be legitimised with his appearance before the U.S. Congress nor given the platform of an official committee hearing to spread his baseless and discriminatory views.”
However, McCarthy and Jordan refused to disinvite Kennedy from testifying at the subcommittee Jordan created to examine the alleged „weaponisation” of government. McCarthy said while he disagreed with Kennedy’s remarks, it was inappropriate to censor a witness who was appearing before the weaponisation subcommittee to discuss allegations that the government censored his views. McCarthy added that the Democrats „should take action against their own,” referring to Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal, who said Israel was a „racist state.”
Kennedy has since defended his remarks, noting that he said he did not know if the „targeting” was deliberate, which he believes undercuts his critics’ claims that he was playing into antisemitic and anti-Asian tropes.
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