Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blamed the media for dragging his campaign Sunday, saying he has been slammed “even more than President Trump was slammed” by mainstream media outlets.

“I’ve been really, you know, slammed in a way that I think is unprecedented,” Kennedy said during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic who is running a longshot primary campaign against President Joe Biden, is more popular among Republicans than Democrats, according to polling.

The nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and the son of his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, Kennedy Jr. has been hit with backlash for his stances on vaccines, particularly recent comments he made suggesting that the coronavirus could have been “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people,” while sparing Jewish and Chinese people. Kennedy denied allegations of racism and antisemitism, saying on Twitter: “I have never, ever suggested that the Covid-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews.”

“I mean, listen, if I believed the stuff that’s written about me in the papers and reported about me on the mainstream news sites, I would definitely not vote for me,” Kennedy told host Maria Bartiromo. “I would think I was a very despicable person.”

  • ZooGuru@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The mistake the media is making is covering RFK Jr. at all. Would have figured they’d learned their lesson with Trump. The media is as much to blame as any other entity for the US’s lurch to the right because they waste their time covering it.

    • agentsquirrel@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      The only reason he’s getting coverage or any attendees at his events is because he’s a Kennedy. If he didn’t have that last name he’d be just yet another fringe candidate giving talks to fifteen people at a time at fire companies and senior centers.

    • echoplex21@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The media at the end of the day care about ratings and clicks. RFK gives that to them unfortunately as it does with Trump.