Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday denied making antisemitic comments, after a video of him floating a conspiracy theory about COVID-19 and Jews surfaced last weekend, ABC News reported.
Kennedy Jr. made the comments in an appearance before a House subcommittee, where he had been scheduled to testify at a hearing on censorship.
Testifying in front of the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on alleged government "weaponization," Kennedy denied that he is racist or antisemitic following the comments, in which he quoted a theory that COVID-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people.” He later added that “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
Kennedy told the committee that he had "never uttered a phrase that was either racist or antisemitic" and, despite repeatedly spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation on public health issues in the past, insisted that he was not anti-vaccination.
"I'm subjected to this new form of censorship, which is called targeted propaganda, where people apply pejoratives like 'anti-vax.' I've never been anti-vaccine," he argued, according to ABC News. "But everybody in this room probably believes that I have been because that's the prevailing narrative."
Kennedy's testimony comes after 102 Democratic representatives signed a letter earlier this week opposing his appearance before the panel, citing his comments that were recorded on video and published by The New York Post.
In his testimony on Thursday, Kennedy claimed that other Democrats were seeking to silence him based on his views.
"I've spent my life in this party. I've devoted my life to the values of this party," he said. "This -- 102 people signed this. This itself is evidence of the problem that this hearing was convened to address. This is an attempt to censor a censorship hearing," Kennedy said.
"I'm a Democrat. And I believe in all that. If you went through a checklist of all of the things my father believed in, that he fought for, that my uncle believed and fought for, I would check every box," he said, referring to the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy. "I feel my party has departed from some of those core values. And one of the reasons that I want to run for president is to reclaim my party."
"If you think I said something that's antisemitic, let's talk about the details," Kennedy maintained in his testimony. "I'm telling you, all the things that I'm accused of right now, by you and in this letter, are distortions, they're misrepresentations."
Earlier this week, House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Sunday blasted Kennedy.
"The disgusting use of a vile antisemitic trope and unhinged xenophobic conspiracy theory by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is unacceptable and unconscionable,” Jeffries said in a statement.
“Hate crimes directed at the Jewish and Asian- American communities have skyrocketed in recent years. The dangerous language used by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. risks fanning the flames of violence against our Jewish and Asian-American brothers and sisters. It should be uniformly condemned," he added.
On Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denounced the conspiracy theory floated by Kennedy.
“The claims made on that tape are false,” Jean-Pierre said during press briefing when asked about a video published over the weekend. “It is vile, and they put our fellow Americans in danger.”