The presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who is running as an independent candidate, said in an email Thursday that the rioters were linked to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and the storming of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. It was announced that he had been charged with the crime. In prison, people were “deprived of their constitutional freedoms.”
Almost four hours later, the campaign retracted its statement. Kennedy campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Speer said the statement was “an error that does not reflect Kennedy's views” and that it was “inserted by a new marketing contractor and bypassed the normal approval process.” ” he added.
Spear said the campaign is reviewing its contracts with marketing companies and stressed that “those who violated the law on January 6th should be subject to appropriate criminal and/or civil penalties.” .
The emails bring the candidate closer to the positions of one of his presidential opponents, former President Donald J. Trump, and other right-wingers who say the rioters were treated unfairly by the justice system. Looked. they are martyrs. This follows Mr Kennedy's comments this week suggesting that President Biden poses a greater threat to American democracy than Mr Trump.
Kennedy's campaign email soliciting donations from supporters focused primarily on the plight of embattled WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who faces extradition to the United States on charges of violating the Espionage Act. was. The campaign described Assange as a “political prisoner” and asked supporters to sign a petition calling on the United States to drop the charges against him.
“The British people want to make sure our government doesn't kill Assange,” the email said, adding: “From Ed Snowden to Julian Assange to the J6 activists sitting in Washington, this is all… This is the reality faced by millions of Americans.” D.C., prisons have been stripped of constitutional freedoms. ”
Mr. Trump and his allies in Congress, as well as far-right circles online, have presented the January 6th riot as heroes and martyrs, and whether the riot was a peaceful protest against voter fraud. , or falsely suggest that it was an act of violence committed by them. That day was needed to overturn the election results and install Trump as the next president. Particular attention is being paid to rioters being held in local jails in Washington.
Mr. Trump has made this revisionist view of the events of January 6 a central part of his campaign. He has pledged to pardon those charged with participating in the Capitol attack, and at recent rallies referred to those detained in connection with their participation as “hostages.”
Mr. Kennedy, who has built his political career on spreading misinformation about vaccines and conspiracy theories about the government, called Mr. Trump's efforts to overturn the election “horrible,” but added, “I believe the election was rigged.” He also expressed sympathy for those who claim that Stolen”—count yourself as an example. In an interview on CNN on Monday, he claimed that the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections were stolen from Democrats, saying, “We shouldn't ostracize those people, we shouldn't demonize them. It should not be slandered,” he added.
Kennedy also told The Washington Post in response to a survey last year that he would consider pardoning people convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 incident, saying, “If prosecutorial misconduct is proven, That's right.'' “Otherwise, no.”
Mr. Assange and Mr. Snowden are the victims of excessive prosecution that violates constitutional rights to free speech and a free press, as well as nonpartisan press freedom advocates, as well as liberals and conservatives. Sometimes he received sympathy from both figures. . Mr. Trump had previously sided with Mr. Assange over the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies and had considered pardoning both men. Mr. Assange And then there's Snowden, who defected to Russia more than 10 years ago during his term in office.
The Kennedy campaign equated the two men wanted on charges of leaking U.S. intelligence with the mob that stormed the Capitol, particularly in reference to the Washington prison.
More than 1,250 people were charged with crimes in connection with the attack, and hundreds were convicted. But only 29 defendants are being held in Washington prisons, and most have already been convicted of violent crimes, such as assaulting a police officer during the attack, according to an NBC News case review. NBC also reported that the defendant on January 6th was the only one of his 15 still in pretrial detention.
michael gold I contributed a report from New York.