ABC News' Linsey Davis interviews Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. and admits that ABC cherry picked content. Every candidate should have his or her voice heard, regardless of topic. Anne Dachel transcribed the interview below. As ever, we cover candidates, we do not endorse them.

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We should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID19 vaccines. Data shows that the COVID19 vaccines prevented millions of hospitalizations and death from the disease.

He also made misleading claims about the relationship between vaccination and autism. Research shows that vaccines and the ingredients used for the vaccines do not cause autism, including multiple studies involving more than a million children and major medical associations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

We’ve used our editorial judgment in not including extended portions of that exchange in our interview.

We thank Mr. Kennedy for the conversation.

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By Anne Dachel

April 27, 2023, Linsey Davis interviewed Robert Kennedy, Jr. on ABC

RFK Jr. on presidential run: 'I feel like my country was being taken away from me' https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/rfk-jr-presidential-run-feel-country-98922268

 

ABC News’ Linsey Davis sat down with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about his decision to run for the 2024 Democratic nomination, and questions his stances on vaccines and courting of conservatives.

Linsey Davis: …Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. recently announced he’ll run against Biden. And he may have some supporters on his side.

A new Fox News poll shows some 19 percent of likely Democratic voters say that they’d like to see RFK, Jr. win the nomination.

RFK, Jr. is one of the biggest voices pushing anti-vaccine rhetoric, regularly distributing misinformation and disinformation about vaccines, which scientific and medical experts overwhelmingly say are safe and effective based on rigorous scientific studies.

But can a Kennedy break through in 2024?

Will RFK, Jr’s controversial stance limit his appeal?

I sat down with him earlier today to ask him about his campaign and trying to take on the President.

Davis: So tell us, why did you decide to run for President?

Robert Kennedy, Jr.: I felt like my country was being taken away from me. I felt like I wanted my children to grow up with the same pride in our country and the same love for our country and the same idea that we had this, you know, this idealism, these opportunities, our country, and that we had communities that were filled with dignity and enrichment, and that we were an exemplary nation. And that those things are being lost, and they’re being lost because—for a lot of reasons—really because of the rise of corporatism in this country and this addition that we have to war.

My part also is becoming the party of war, the party of censorship the party of fear, the part of neocons and Wall Street.

And I just felt like I was in a unique opportunity to change that.

Davis: How so? You never held a political position before. Obviously you’ve been in environmental law for more than three decades, but what do you think qualifies you for the highest position in the land?

Kennedy: I think I know more about how to fix regulatory agencies than any other politician in this country because I’ve spent 40 years suing them.

When you sue a regulator, you get kind of a PhD in how they work and how to unravel this kind of culture of corporate capture and corruption. There are ways we can fix these agencies, and we can do it very quickly.

Davis: How would you do that? I want to just—because you’ve been very critical on multiple government agencies, from the CIA, the EPA, the DOT, the CDC, the FDA.

If you were to become President, you would effectively be the boss of all these agencies that you’ve cast so many aspersions on and said publicly that there’s so much distrust there. How would you run them?

Kennedy: Let me say this, Linsey. I think most of the people, 90 percent of the people in those agencies are good Americans. They’re good public servants. They’re patriots, they are idealistic and they want to do their job.

The problem is the people who rise to power in those agencies usually are the people who are in the tank with industry or are willing to carry water for the industry. And they’re the ones that last for 50 years.

They rise become they’re willing to do favors for industry and take directions from industry.

Davis: Why do you feel that you should challenge Joe Biden?

Kennedy: I’ve known Joe Biden for 40 years. You know, he’s friends with my family. I’ve considered him a friend.

His approach to government and to the Democratic Party is, to me, is completely different than the way—

I don’t believe we should be the party of war.

I don’t believe we should be the party of Wall Street.

I don’t believe that we should let neocons dictate our foreign policy, and I don’t believe in censorship, for starters.

Those are all values that are traditional Democratic Party values that this White House has departed from.

Davis: The DNC has said, as you’re well aware, that they’re going to support Biden. They’re not going to even hold any primary debates.

Kennedy: Well, I think it’s troubling if we don’t have debates. I mean, particularly, Linsey, at this point in history, there are so many Americans who believe that our democracy is broken and that the system is rigged against them.

I think it’s really, you know, incumbent on the Democratic Party to act as a template, to make this election a template for democracy and saying we’re going to have debates.  We’re going to have open discussion. We’re going to let the people decide. We’re not going to have party leaders decide who are going to be our primary, like they did in the Soviet Union.

Davis: The other day when you made your announcement that you were going to run for President, you invoked your dad when he was running for President back in 1968.

VIDEO CLIP. RFK, JR:  He was running against a president of his own party. He was running against a war. He was running at a time of unprecedented polarization in our country. And he had no chance of winning.

My father, when he declared, had not a single molecule in him that he believed that he could win the Democratic nomination.

Do you have a single molecule that you believe that you can win?

Kennedy: I actually think I can win.

I’m not a soothsayer. I’m going to try as—I’m going to wake up every day, and I’m going to campaign. I’m going to talk to Americans. I’m going to do what I’m supposed to do.  And, and then, you know, it’s in God’s hands whether I win or not.

I’m going to take the action and do what I need to do.

Davis: IF you don’t win during the primary, would you consider an independent run?

Kennedy: You know, I plan to win the primary. I’m going to run a campaign that is respectful to the President but allows me to challenge him on the issues. And if people prefer my view of what the country should look like and where it should be headed, then I’ll win.

If they don’t, I don’t think they’re going to go away with any additional antipathy toward the President.

Davis: There are those, as I’m sure you’re aware, who have criticized or question just how loyal you are to the Democratic Party.

Do you whole heartedly, full throated say, yes, I’m a Democrat?

Kennedy: I’m a Democrat, otherwise I wouldn’t be running as a Democrat. But I’m not loyal to any party about principles. I’m loyal to the principles that the Democratic Party has always stood for.

That is why I’m running for President today, to make sure that those people, those lost, forgotten Americans who feel that the system is rigged against them, who feel forgotten by both political parties that they feel like they can be included one time, once again, in the political process.

Davis: What do you think is the biggest misconception about you?

Kennedy: You know, I think the public perception of me is just a bundle of misperceptions. I mean part of that is just not being vilified for three years, much longer than that, but for the last three years with total blanket censorship.

I welcome what I’ve done. I’m at peace with that, you know, with the choices that I’ve made. And I understand that I’m living in a world where I’m opposing large forces that are very, very powerful and are able to silence me.

But I wouldn’t know where to begin in telling you where the, you know what the biggest misperceptions are about me.

If you go through them one at a time, I’ll answer them.

What do you think is the fairest criticism?

Kennedy: I mean, listen, I’ve got as many defects as I do—I told my wife, I have more skeletons in my closest. I have so many that if they could vote, I could win president of the world by a landslide.

I’m not a guy who’s coming to you and saying I’m a perfect human being. I’m not. I’ve had a really, you know. I’ve had a rich life. Let me put it that way.

But, you know, I’m coming here because I believe in something, and I think people know that if I believe in something, that, number one, you can change my mind, if you confront me with facts.

Number two, if you don’t change my mind with facts, I’m going to stick to my guns, and nobody can move me.

Davis: You say this, but then there are known conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, Steve Bannon. You go on their talk shows, and, at the same time, tell America that media is lying to you.

How do you square that with voters?

Kennedy: First of all, those are two different issues. One issue is, should I be talking to Republicans platform?

That’s a completely different issue.

When I go on those platforms, I’m not lying to people. I’m telling the truth.

Davis: But you legitimize the platforms.

Kennedy: It doesn’t matter. To me, there’s no way that you can overcome the polarization without talking to people on the other side.

How do you—and I’m done that my whole life.

When I was, you know, 30 years, one of the leading environmentalists in the country, I was the only environmentalist who would go on Fox News.

And some environmentalists would say, you shouldn’t go there and legitimize it.

I said, I want to talk  to that audience.

If we don’t talk to them, how can we persuade them?

So I will talk to anybody.

9:35

Davis: You said, in the past, that there is a correlation between vaccines leading to autism. That’s totally been debunked.

Kennedy: Wait a minute. Who debunked it?

Davis: We have not seen any kind of scientific connection from the CDC, the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Science.

Kennedy: But those organizations are captive agencies, Linsey.

Davis: And so you think they’re all in cahoots?

Kennedy: Yeah, they’re all captive.

Davis: You’ve discussed the Kennedy family, as like any family, there are disagreements. But I think what makes it different here is that several of your relatives have not just said that they disagree with you, but they’ve called you dangerous.

As you’re probably well aware, there were two of your siblings and a niece who wrote in a Politico article back in 2019,

 “He has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of science behind vaccines.

“We stand behind him in his ongoing fight to protect our environment. However, on vaccines, he is wrong.”

Your sister Kerry has said, “I love my brother Bobby, but I do not share or endorse his opinions on many issues, including the COVID pandemic, vaccinations and the role of social media platforms in policing false information.”

Your sister Rory has said, “I admire his past work as an environmentalist. Because of him, we can swim in the Hudson, but due to a wide range of Bobby’s positions, I’m supporting President Biden.

And I’m just curious, if you are not able to get your own sisters to vote for you for President, how would you make that appeal to American voters?

Kennedy: What is your family like? Do they agree with everything that you say and do?

Davis: They’d probably vote for me if I ran for President.

Kennedy: Yeah well, I have siblings who will vote for me as well, but I have a big family and many of them will not.

I have two siblings who came to my announcement and a lot of other relatives as well. I mean there’s disagreements, but, you know, I love my family. And, you know, my family particularly, in particular, we grew up arguing with each other. And we are very, very, I’d say comfortable disagreeing with each other, both publicly and privately, on issues, and at the same time, loving each other. And that’s something that we—is a lesson that we ought to learn for this country.

We can disagree with each other without hating each other, without vilifying each other, without marginalizing each other.

Davis: I’m just making a distinction. I’m just using your family’s words calling you dangerous.

No, I was just using your family’s words to call you dangerous rather than saying that’s not like the typical family that might have disagreements around the kitchen table.

Kennedy: And how do you expect me to respond to that other than saying they were wrong about the issue that they consider me dangerous?

Davis: That’s a fair response. And my other point is just that if you don’t regard the same scientific authorities—

Kennedy: Science is rarely static. There are very few scientific principles that are immovable.

Science is dynamic, and you know, look, I …I’ve litigated over 500 lawsuits. In every one of those lawsuits, there are experts, authorities on one side and experts and authorities on the other that are saying the exact opposite thing.

No, I don’t trust authority. I need to see the details. I need to see the science.

Davis: Your final pitch to voters.

Kennedy: My pitch would be that, you know, we need, we need to look at what’s happened to our country. We need to try to arrest this emergence of corporatism, of the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that’s undermining our values, that’s strip mining our landscape, that is stealing the assets of the middle class of this country, that is compromising the values of this country, that’s keeping us in a constant state of war, and is creating a nation that doesn’t resemble the nation that, you know, we all love, which is a nation with a few handful of billionaires and widespread poverty and democracy does not have a prayer of continuing.

Let’s try to take a new path that will allow us to give our children a country that is once again a moral authority around the globe, and exemplary nation, and that has a booming middle class in this country. That can sustain democracy.

Linsey Davis added this disclaimer at the end of the interview:

We should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID19 vaccines. Data shows that the COVID19 vaccines prevented millions of hospitalizations and death from the disease.

He also made misleading claims about the relationship between vaccination and autism. Research shows that vaccines and the ingredients used for the vaccines do not cause autism, including multiple studies involving more than a million children and major medical associations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

We’ve used our editorial judgment in not including extended portions of that exchange in our interview.

We thank Mr. Kennedy for the conversation.

 

The Vaccine Court 2.0: Revised and Updated: The Dark Truth of America's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

By Wayne Rohde

The Vaccine Court looks at the mysterious and often unknown world of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP), the only recourse for seeking compensation for those who have been injured by a vaccine. The NVICP, better known as the ”Vaccine Court,” however, is not without controversy.

Established by Congress as a direct result of the passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, the NVICP was supposed to offer a no-fault alternative to the traditional injury claims filed in state or federal courts and was to provide quick, efficient, and fair compensation for those who have been injured by vaccines. The reality, however, is that many cases take several years or longer to complete and require tremendous commitment from families already pushed to the brink of bankruptcy caring for the vaccine-injured family member, only to discover that the end result is manipulated by the government in defense of the US vaccine policy.

A Letter to Liberals: Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals

By Robert Kennedy Jr.

A leading Democrat challenges his party to return to liberal values and evidence-based science
 
Democrats were the party of intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and faith in scientific and liberal empiricism. They once took pride in understanding how to read science critically, exercising healthy skepticism toward notoriously corrupt entities like the drug companies that brought us the opioid crisis, and were outraged by the phenomenon of “agency capture” and the pervasive control of private interests over Congress, the media, and the scientific journals.
 
A Letter to Liberals is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s, challenge to “lockdown liberalism’s” embrace of policies that are an affront to once cherished precepts.
 

Denial: How Refusing to Face the Facts about Our Autism Epidemic Hurts Children, Families, and Our Future

By Mark Blaxill and Dan Olmsted

Even as the autism rate soars and the cost to our nation climbs well into the billions, a dangerous new idea is taking hold: There simply is no autism epidemic.

The question is stark: Is autism ancient, a genetic variation that demands acceptance and celebration? Or is it new and disabling, triggered by something in the environment that is damaging more children every day?        

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