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.”

  • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Where is exactly is the left in this fight? The media is hardly the left and RFK Jr. is an alt-right candidate using his family’s name as cover to masquerade as a Democrat.

    • MasterOBee Master/King@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Almost all TV media is left wing. Most online media is left wing. Social media is left wing.

      RFK Jr. is an alt-right candidate

      Can you define alt-right?

      Generally folks who are alt right aren’t willing to sign a gun ban, generally aren’t pro-choice, aren’t for college loan forgiveness, doesn’t champion trans rights, nor other LGBTQ rights, generally aren’t for nationalized drug recovery centers, aren’t anti-war, don’t fully condemn every white supremicist, anti-semite or anti asian rhetoric.

      If you really think he’s alt-right, we have different depictions of what the ‘alt-right’ are.

      • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Delusions as fuck. Media in this country is all run by the extremely wealthy. To call it left wing is laughable. Neo-liberalism (democrats) are borderline conservative and that’s who runs the media. Just cuz you’ve been brainwashed into thinking centerist big corporate politicians are “left wing” doesn’t make it true.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Almost all TV media and social media is run by corporations who only care about making money. That’s hardly left-wing.

          • Space_Jamke@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            The guy who paid 45 billion dollars to lift bans on several infamous wingnut trolls like Catturd and turned a bird logo into an X for clout doesn’t seem like a Democrat to me. Neither is the billionaire oil baron who owns Fox News, Sky News, Fake News, etc., the former of which is the largest media company in America. You’re not an underdog.

            • MasterOBee Master/King@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              The guy who paid 45 billion dollars to lift bans on several infamous wingnut trolls like Catturd and turned a bird logo into an X for clout doesn’t seem like a Democrat to me.

              He’s the opposite of how the former ownership ran twitter for the past 10 years. I didn’t hear you bitching about it then.

              And, having uniform/unbanning regardless of political affiliation is how I believe media should be. It shouldn’t be bias.

              Fox News, Sky News, Fake News, etc., the former of which is the largest media company in America. You’re not an underdog.

              Fox news is the only right wing cable network. NBC, MSNBC, CNN ABC are all left

      • Fugicara@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Almost all TV media is left wing. Most online media is left wing. Social media is left wing.

        Literally none of this is true. The only universe this is true in is the one where anything left of fascism is “left wing.”

      • jaybirrd@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You make a great point here. It’s so common to boil one view down to a label, and then people use that label to extrapolate a whole set of views, many of which the individual may not ascribe to. Example: he’s anti vax which is an alt right viewpoint, therefore he is alt right. You tell someone that he is alt right and then that person thinks he is bigoted toward LGBTQ+, donates to the NRA, pickets outside of abortion clinics, etc.

        I’m not saying any of this in support of RFK Jr at all, just that this concept is detrimental to all rational discourse. Labels are a helpful part of language in categorizing things, but they can also be really dangerous when you default to using them in every situation even if they don’t fit.

        • MasterOBee Master/King@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Example: he’s anti vax which is an alt right viewpoint,

          No it’s not, it’s traditionally fringe left - see hippies.

          just that this concept is detrimental to all rational discourse.

          Agreed. You don’t perfectly fit into one box, and the fact that one side will trash you if you don’t perfectly align and vote how their party votes is absurd