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
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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.

  • Vlhacs@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    He’s already at the “the media is unfair to me” stage. That was quick.

    Also, the last paragraph is hilarious.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    a longtime vaccine skeptic

    Anti-vaxxer. Don’t play into their hands and use their language.

  • teft@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 year ago

    Gee, I wonder why the media would hit a spoiler candidate like RFK Jr harder than someone who is entangled in multiple trials? Maybe he will realize he has no shot and just go away but I doubt that.

  • ArugulaZ@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    He’s a Democrat!? On what planet?

    If you don’t want to be criticized for saying stupid, untrue things, stop saying stupid, untrue things. It’s pretty simple.

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The news media gave Trump one free pass after another, so in many ways, RFK Jr is right.

    But he’s still a fucken clown and his presidential run is purposefully done as a disruption to Biden and managed by conservative interests. He’s trying to be a spoiler candidate that siphons just enough votes away from Biden to get Trump elected.

    So fuck everything about the guy, but when he says the media is harder on him than Trump, he’s right by a technicality simply because the media gave Trump the easiest time what with the countless number of things they could have, and should have, investigated about him, but chose not to all because of ratings.

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    So you actually both suck, neither of you care ambit American democracy or basic, decent good and neither of you should be in the national conversation, period (and one of you should obviously be in jail and disqualified from attempting to run for any political office after inciting an insurrection).

    You’re not serious people people and there’s a high likelihood that you’re both mentally ill. Fuck.Off.

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

    Although the media hit Trump really hard, the left-on-left violence seems pretty unprecedented.

    It;s clear that the left knows that he’s not establishment, like Biden is, and that if he got a fair chance, he’d probably stomp Biden.