Greg Palast on RFK Jr: This is painful. This is horrible and feels a bit like a betrayal

[Dennis Donovan]

Link to tweet

Greg Palast
This is painful. This is horrible and feels a bit like a betrayal. But I have no choice. Bobby Kennedy Jr. was my friend and co-author. I feel terrible about revealing these things. But our democracy truly is in the balance…. #RFKJr

I was on the phone with RFK Jr. when he lost his mind

My friend’s brain decayed in front of my eyes

This is painful. This is horrible and feels a bit like a betrayal. But I have no choice. Bobby Kennedy Jr. was my friend and co-author. We wrote stories together for Rolling Stone. Bobby introduced my New York Times bestseller and wrote a chapter for Billionaires and Ballot Bandits. And, with Jesse Jackson, we co-authored the Number 1 selling adult single issue comic book of all time, Steal Back Your Vote.

It was truly scary. In 2012, Bobby had arranged a press conference about the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Eleven oil rig workers were incinerated in the blow-out of a British Petroleum drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Palast investigations team discovered that, 17 months before that oil rig blew out in the Gulf, British Petroleum suffered an identical blow-out in the Caspian Sea. The oil company—with the connivance of then-Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice—covered it up.

It was a hell of a story, which I broadcast on prime time in Britain and Europe. I wrote a book about it, Vultures’ Picnic.

/snip

More at link

[notemason]

1. As the worm turns

[The Unmitigated Gall]

2. Shit.

I remember RFK Jr. sounding a lot more rational than these days. Hopefully most of his voters will do what's right.

[keithbvadu2]

3. Not really a betrayal when his loyalty is to the highest bidder.

Dead brainworm RFK Jr knew he had no chance to be president.
But he figured he could leverage his way to an important post by using his supporters as a bargaining tool.
He approached both campaigns with the same offer, so his loyalty is just as worthless as Trump's.

[OMGWTF]

7. I heard the Harris-Walz campaign didn't return his call.

[ananda]

4. "Is it the brilliant environmental law professor who is endorsing Trump--or the worm?"

I know what I think.

Anyhow, that was a very good article
and goes a long way towards explaining
what happened to this guy.

[TheKentuckian]

5. The baby bear roadkill top chef is just another weirdo in

the MAGA cult menagerie of freaks.

Tie em all together and toss em out.

RFK, jr is grifting nutjob just like papa Chump.

[Demobrat]

6. If he thinks he will ever get a job out of Trump he's nuts.

I do wonder what the quid pro quo is.

Doorman at Trump Tower?

Not that Trump will come through.

[blogslug]

8. I understand, Mr. Palast

I remember the man who sounded so righteous and reasonable on Air America.

What a sad and bad turn.

[rubbersole]

17. I remember him on the "Ring of Fire" radio show on Saturdays years ago.

With another environmental lawyer - Mike Papentonio (sp). They were cutting edge and brilliant. Nothing resembling this person.

[Music Man]

9. I remember when RFK Jr. was briefly considered for EPA head in 2008.

Obama's people were clearly smart enough to have doubts about him. Makes me respect them even more.

[pnwmom]

10. A good article -- except these paragraphs at the end made no sense.

The last time I heard from Bobby, it was after midnight on Election Day 2016. “Greg, what happened? When my plane left JFK, Hillary had won. I’ve landed in LA and Trump won. What happened?”

What happened? Bobby, WE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT IT. I had re-issued an updated version of my book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, which included his intro and a chapter he’d written. The book, which was on the Times bestseller list, detailed exactly how Trump would take the election from Hillary through vote suppression trickery in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Did he forget his own book?

Bobby couldn't have asked him the question in November 2016. Did Palast mean November 2020?

[Joinfortmill]

11. Explains a lot.

[NBachers]

12. Unfortunate

[proud patriot]

13. I've met Greg a few times

both times in Oakland .

I'm proud of you Greg , thanks for this .

[markodochartaigh]

16. Greg Palast is great!

He has been on the front lines fighting for democracy for many years. All of his movies are worth watching, even more so now! They are all available on his website, as are his books.

[karin_sj]

14. I've always liked and respected Palast

And I admired RFK Jr. too when I thought he was a defender of our environment. But it sounds like he has turned into a total wacko, and a dangerous one at that. His father and uncle must be rolling in their graves...

[Cha]

15. Ya think! You had

No fucking clue 🕵️‍♀️?

[electric_blue68]

18. I have respect for Greg. It's truely sad to see a once intellengent, more level headed friend go further, and further..

around the bend. A friend, and someone you also did work with as a colleague.

I heard RFK Jr give a lecture at an event a friend invited me to. This was 38 - 40+ years even I think before his anti-vax stance.

It's a shame.

[uponit7771]

19. Epstein

[keep_left]

20. One suspects there is quite a backstory about why RFK Jr is no longer...

...on the Ring of Fire radio show. He was the co-host with Mike Papantonio for years, and then he left suddenly--at least it seemed that way to me. I can imagine that Kennedy's increasingly strident antivax views led to significant conflicts with Papantonio as well as guests on the show.