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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a scion of one of many nation’s most well-known Democratic households, on Monday dived into the total embrace of a bunch of conservative figures who eagerly promoted his long-shot main problem to President Biden.For greater than two hours, Mr. Kennedy participated in a web-based audio chat on Twitter with the platform’s more and more rightward-leaning chief govt, Elon Musk. They engaged in a pleasant back-and-forth with the likes of Tulsi Gabbard, the previous Democratic congresswoman turned right-wing commentator; a high donor to Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida; and an expert surfer who grew to become a distinguished voice casting doubt on coronavirus vaccines.Mr. Kennedy, who introduced his 2024 presidential marketing campaign in April, is himself a number one vaccine skeptic, and has promoted different conspiracy theories. But he has constantly hovered round 20 % in polling of the Democratic main, which the occasion has in any other case ceded to Mr. Biden.On Monday, he appeared like a candidate much more relaxed within the mushrooming Republican presidential contest.He stated he deliberate to journey to the Mexican border this week to “attempt to formulate insurance policies that can seal the border completely,” known as for the federal authorities to think about the struggle in Ukraine from the angle of Russians and stated pharmaceutical medication have been accountable for the rise of mass shootings in America.“Previous to the introduction of Prozac, we had virtually none of those occasions in our nation and we’ve by no means seen them in human historical past, the place folks stroll right into a schoolroom of youngsters or strangers and begin taking pictures folks,” stated Mr. Kennedy, who famous that each his father and uncle have been killed by weapons.Mr. Kennedy stated he now had “about 50 folks” working for his marketing campaign. In contrast to Marianne Williamson, the opposite introduced Democratic challenger to Mr. Biden, he doesn’t seem like aiming to enchantment to Democrats who’re ideologically against the average president or are in any other case uneasy with renominating him. As an alternative, he has used his marketing campaign platform — and his well-known identify — to advertise misinformation and concepts which have little traction in his occasion.Requested throughout the dialogue by David Sacks, a high DeSantis donor who can be near Mr. Musk, “what occurred to the Democratic Social gathering,” Mr. Kennedy spent 9 uninterrupted minutes attacking Mr. Biden as a warmonger and claimed that their occasion was underneath the management of the pharmaceutical trade.“I believe the Democratic Social gathering grew to become the occasion of struggle,” Mr. Kennedy stated. “I attribute that on to President Biden.” He added, “He has all the time been in favor of very bellicose, pugnacious and aggressive overseas coverage, and he believes that violence is a professional political software for reaching America’s aims overseas.”The Democratic Nationwide Committee and Mr. Biden’s marketing campaign declined to remark about Mr. Kennedy.The occasion, which at its peak had greater than 60,000 listeners, in response to Twitter, at occasions felt as if Mr. Kennedy have been interviewing Mr. Musk about his stewardship of Twitter, a platform that has misplaced greater than half of its promoting income because the billionaire acquired it in October. For greater than half-hour on the occasion’s begin, the presidential candidate interrogated the tech mogul about releasing the so-called Twitter information, self-driving automobiles and synthetic intelligence.“These are actually fascinating subjects for folks, however I believe quite a lot of the general public want to hear about your presidential run,” Mr. Musk stated to Mr. Kennedy.Mr. Kennedy, 69, is a longtime amplifier and propagator of baseless theories, starting practically 20 years in the past together with his skepticism about the results of the 2004 presidential election in addition to frequent childhood vaccines. His viewers for such misinformation ballooned throughout the coronavirus pandemic.On Monday, Mr. Kennedy repeated a bunch of false statements, amongst them:He stated that after the Reasonably priced Care Act of 2010, “Democrats have been getting more cash from pharma than Republicans.” An evaluation by STAT Information discovered that political motion committees with ties to pharmaceutical firms gave more cash to Republicans than Democrats in 14 out of 16 election years since 1990.He claimed, with out proof, that “Covid was clearly a bioweapons drawback.” American intelligence companies don’t imagine there may be any proof indicating that’s the case.And as he blamed psychiatric drug use for the rise of gun violence in america, he contended that the gun possession fee within the U.S. was much like that of Switzerland. America had the very best civilian gun possession fee on this planet, at an estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 folks, in accordance the newest worldwide Small Arms Survey. That was greater than double the speed of the second-highest nation, Yemen at 52.8, and far increased than Switzerland’s 27.6.
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