Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launches 2024 presidential bid

[Jose Garcia]

Source: CNN

(CNN)Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer, described himself as a truth-teller who will "end the division" as he launched his bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday in Boston.

Kennedy used his campaign launch speech to lambast school and business closures during the coronavirus pandemic and to insist that government and media "lie to us."

"My mission over the next 18 months of this campaign and throughout my presidency," he said, "will be to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening now -- threatening now -- to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism in our country; to commoditize our children, our purple mountain's majesty; to poison our children and our people with chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs; to strip-mine our assets; to hollow out the middle class and keep us in a constant state of war."

The 69-year-old Kennedy is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and son of former US attorney general and assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Robert Kennedy.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/04/19/politics/robert-f-kennedy-jr-2024-announcement/index.html

[Walleye]

1. He needs an intervention.

I hope he’s ready to answer for the outbreaks of measles and whooping cough is anti-vaccine and it causes

[Omaha Steve]

2. At one time I would have jumped on his bandwagon

Today is like

[mahina]

30. What is that emoji?

Thanks!

[Omaha Steve]

31. Smiley face is asleep

Scratched his butt and roles over in dreamland. I meant it to show how excited I am about this candidate.

[CanonRay]

3. I assume we're free to criticize him

because he is no Democrat. Especially since Bannon got him to run.

[SledDriver]

4. That spinning sound you hear is coming from his father's grave.

[The Wizard]

23. He will be identified

by the company he keeps. Flynn and Stone? Holy shot Batman.

[yardwork]

39. Wow. Nice company he's keeping.

[Chipper Chat]

5. Jill stein redux.

[cab67]

7. as long as people remember 2016...

...I'm less concerned about it this time around. His only real followers are likely to be those with a profound mistrust of modern medical science and a willingness to believe crackpot conspiracy theories. There are more such people on the right than on the left.

That being said, my fellow scientists and I need to do a better job of educating the public about the life-threatening dangers of his anti-vax manure.

[Jose Garcia]

9. He's not running as a 3rd party candidate. He's running as a Democrat

[Chipper Chat]

19. But if he loses the primary he will probably run as an independent

He's got lots of money

[womanofthehills]

20. I doubt if he will run as a independent

He’s always been a Dem. He’s getting a big following on social media.

[C Moon]

6. Needles to say, that'll be a shot in the arm for the primaries.

[Bayard]

10. I see what you did there!

[barbtries]

8. hopeless.

no, no, no. Democrats believe in science. you are not a credit to your family.

[area51]

22. +1 n/t

[Bayard]

11. He would be great for the environment

But terrible for medicine/science.

[Initech]

15. I can't believe Dems would vote for a candidate endorsed by Steve Bannon.

This is a political hit job and that's about it.

[hay rick]

12. Absolutely loses me at anti-vax.

He expresses some important real concerns but the anti-vax rhetoric is utterly disqualifying.

[yaesu]

13. Out of respect for his father I will definitely vote for him

if he ever runs for dog catcher. :

[twodogsbarking]

14. Makes no sense to me.

[Paladin]

16. Fuck you where you breathe, RFK Jr.

Stay away from the pharmaceutical drugs that keep me and my loved ones alive.

And do yourself and everybody else a favor: Withdraw from the presidential race, and from politics altogether. And while you're at it, quit pissing on your father's grave.

[Demnation]

17. Guaranteed big $ comes from R PACs hoping to split the D vote in 24. Won't work.

[sinkingfeeling]

18. You all know he filed a lawsuit against Daily KOS.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/1/7/1608299/-NY-Times-and-11-media-organizations-file-amicus-brief-supporting-Daily-Kos-in-Kennedy-Jr-lawsuit

[KS Toronado]

35. 1st paragraph of the above article

Anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy Jr. is suing Daily Kos, trying to force us to reveal the identity of one of our community members. We’re telling him to go pound sand. Lawyers are involved. You can get the background here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. In short, community member DowneastDem wrote about Kennedy cavorting with Nazis at a Berlin rally. Kennedy then sued in New York court to reveal her or his identity. Kennedy claims he wants to sue for defamation, but he’s refused to sue any other media outlet reporting on the Nazi rally, and he’s refused to sue me and Daily Kos, even though I’ve said much worse things about him. Kennedy is attempting to dox a community member for criticizing him, and we’re refusing to let him do it. The great folks at Public Citizen are providing that community member with pro bono legal services.

[yardwork]

40. Bizarre. I wonder if he's developing cognitive issues.

[BlueMTexpat]

21. What a disgrace he is

to the Kennedy family!

[Seeking Serenity]

24. There should be NO Party presidential primaries in 2024

The state Party central committees must be brought to heel to cancel their presidential primaries next year. Or else, those state Party committees must be ordered (coerced, call it what you will) that there will be only ONE Democrat running for president, Joseph R. Biden, and that NO OTHER NAMES WILL BE PERMITTED on a presidential primary ballot.

Capice? This must happen. The national Party organization MUST send a message to any and ALL wannabe interlopers. You f***ing fall in line with our candidate or get the f*** out. Go join the criminally seditious people.

[Jose Garcia]

25. That would be the coward's way out

I don't think that the Democratic Party is afraid of its own voters.

[Seeking Serenity]

26. That's not fear. It's an absolute show of strength and unity of purpose

It's Joe Biden by acclamation,, period. Not even ONE "protest" vote on the convention floor.

Holding primary elections only waste money. Save all that up and we could have the first $2 billion general election campaign chest. So much money that no Anti-Americanist candidate could get elected fucking dog catcher. I want a clean sweep of every elective office, and money will get us there. In six years, I want every executive office and every Legislative office, local, state, and federal. I want the Grand Old Sedition Party to be a distant memory, and every person who ever voted for a seditionist to deny they ever did.

I want historians legitimately wondering how Ronald Asshole or George W. Shithead every got elected since they cant find ANYONE who will admit voting for them (truthfully because the seditionists stole those elections).

Are we clear??

[electric_blue68]

27. Uh ...

What's this about Reagan's election being questionable?


(I know about W )

[Seeking Serenity]

28. I am of the conviction that the Sedition Party stole the 1980 election from President Carter

President Carter was the rightful winner of the 1980 election but for the Sedition Anti-Americanist Party's and Ronnie Fuckface's traitorous dealings with Iran. That senile old coot was totally and thoroughly illegitimate (thus his so-called "re-election" in 1984 was equally illegitimate and should not have been certified by the Democratic Congress).

In my opinion, the last legitimate president from the [unspeakable word deleted] Party was Gen. Eisenhower. Every subsequent one was the result of a stitch-up one way or another by seditionists and Anti-Americanists, denying the Democratic candidates their rightful victories.

[electric_blue68]

29. Woah - I totally blanked out on that - Iran hostages, and his secret deal

Yeah, I agree now that you reminded me.

Fuck, Ray-gun.

[ND Linda]

32. Corporate Government of the people by the people for....

RFK Jr. is being blackballed for asking the wrong “right” questions. He has worked for our environment and vaccine safety. He has brought up issues such as the military industrial complex (because nobody else will) so…..

I have heard RFK talk about thimerosal that was used as a preservative in vaccines. He has said that it is not good. If it’s ok why was thimerosal removed from vaccines given to children in 1999? the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was required by law to assess the amount of mercury in all the products the agency oversees, not just vaccines. The U.S. Public Health Service decided that as much mercury as possible should be removed from vaccines, and thimerosal was the only source of mercury in vaccines. Thimerosal was taken out of childhood vaccines in the United States in 2001.

Thimerosal is still in some flu vaccines that children may receive. To produce enough flu vaccine for the entire country, some of it must be put into multi-dose vials, because it is possible for microbes to get into the vial. So, this preservative is needed to prevent contamination of the vial when individual doses are drawn from it. Flu vaccine in single-dose vials that does not contain thimerosal also is available. However, influenza vaccine has little or no efficacy and a high risk of side effects.

The childhood vaccines that used to contain thimerosal as a preservative are now put into single-dose vials, so no preservative is needed. It doesn’t even pass the laugh test that it wasn’t a “problem” but they took it out.

[ShazzieB]

33. That stuff about thimerosal has been debunked repeatedly.

Last edited Sun Apr 23, 2023, 10:12 PM - Edit history (1)

Here's just one article that debunks this: https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/15/health/thimerosal-vaccine-preservative-explainer/index.html

I could probably find a dozen more, but it's late and I'm tired. They pretty much all say the same thing anyway. I will just add that outside the antivax community, RFK Jr. is widely regarded as a dangerous crackpot, and he doesn't have a lot of fans here at DU, as this thread will show: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217842848

P.S. Science is real, and vaccines save lives.

EDITED TO ADD: Whether RFK Jr. identifies as an antivaxxer is completely irrelevant. I was describing how others see him, and that IS how most people outside the antivax community who are aware of his antivaccine activism see him. He can call himself a purple cow for all I care. Or a purple giraffe.

[marble falls]

34. I hate it when the wooooo shows up.

[ShazzieB]

37. Me, too!

Makes me want to go all HULK SMASH!

I don't understand why rhat post is still here. That kind of woo doesn’t usually last long at DU.

[keep_left]

42. PPRed!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=368849

[marble falls]

44. And the woooooo has left the building!

[marble falls]

45. They just couldn't let it go!

[Bengus81]

36. His voice won't hold out for one week of serious campaigning

No way............

[womanofthehills]

41. He has spasmodic dysphonia

For the past few months, RFK Jr has been on many podcasts & shows deciding if he was going to run plus he has his own podcast interviewing others. He’s been semi campaigning for months - voice sounds the same.

[Mark.b2]

43. All he has is his last name...

And voters have wearied of and wisened up to political dynasties. The Bushes helped close that door.

And his sounding like Katherine Hepburn with a frog in her throat doesn't help his presentation skills.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

46. His dad was a great man, for the most part

This particular pile of his leavings doesn't seem to have turned out too well.

Whenever I see his name, all I can think is...