House Republicans are openly goading their Democratic colleagues by handing a megaphone to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Democrats are determined to make sure it backfires.
GOP leaders invited Kennedy to testify at a Thursday hearing on alleged social media censorship, sticking by the plan even after the long-shot presidential contender’s recent false claims that the coronavirus pandemic was designed to spare Jews and Chinese people.
The move essentially gave Democrats two choices.
They could either ignore what they see as a blatant attempt to embarrass Biden by elevating an opponent or they could embrace a chance to directly rebut the unfounded claims Kennedy has spread, particularly on vaccines. They’re going with the latter and, in the process, taking Republicans to task for elevating him.
“He is spouting baseless, unfactual, unscientific conspiracy theories,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). “You shine a white-hot spotlight on someone like that and expose the Republicans for their hypocrisy.”
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) put it more simply, calling Kennedy's appearance another example of Republicans having “crackpots for witnesses.”
The strategy will force Democrats to go head-to-head with a member of one of their most famous dynasties amid broader jitters about a third-party spoiler in the presidential race. But they’re hoping to turn Republicans' attempted trolling to their advantage, driving home one of their core arguments against the House GOP’s investigative onslaught this year: that it’s a politically motivated sideshow for the Republican base, not the policymaking swing voters crave.
“It makes them all look silly. … His own family has said: ‘We don’t support any of that.’ So you’re going to put a discredited witness at the table that is going to embarrass himself, embarrass the family and embarrass [Republicans]. That is your witness?” Connolly asked.
In addition to Kennedy — who has billed himself as the “prime witness” — Republicans have also called in an editor from the ultra-right publication Breitbart and D. John Sauer, the special assistant attorney general from the Louisiana Department of Justice.
A Democratic committee aide described calling Kennedy Jr. as the “ultimate troll job” but added that the party’s bigger point will be highlighting that “there are real problems and real issues in this country, and this isn’t one of them.” Democrats have invited Maya Wiley, the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, as their witness.
"This hearing is about Big Government's censorship of Americans and nothing else," said a GOP spokesperson for the Judiciary Committee.
Kennedy's presidential campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
As odious as they find Kennedy's rhetoric, top Democrats aren’t ready to let him speak unchecked on Thursday. Totally ignoring him was never on the table — they'd seen first firsthand how declining to participate in the Jan. 6 select committee had disadvantaged Republicans.
“I don’t want to leave the hearing room for the Republicans to have a free-for-all without being checked on inaccuracies and spreading more hate,” said Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary subcommittee that investigates GOP claims of bias within the federal government.
Not all Democratic members of the panel wanted to spend energy rebutting Kennedy during the hearing. Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) said experts had already “refuted all of his crazy theories.”
“They're just digging themselves into a hole, deeper and deeper,” she said of the panel’s Republicans.
Republicans raced to distance themselves from Kennedy’s comments over the weekend. Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Monday that he disagreed with “everything” Kennedy said, though GOP leader added that he did not believe Kennedy should be disinvited from the hearing. Multiple Republicans have defended moving forward with his testimony, arguing that Democrats had injected 2024 into the conversation by trying to “censor” Kennedy.
Kennedy had been suspended from Meta-owned Instagram after posting vaccine misinformation — a fact he's poised to testify on at the hearing, though his account was restored after he kicked off his presidential bid.
Biden allies have "been trying to censor their Democratic opponent” since the start of the administration, Jordan said, referring to criticism that Kennedy's invitation amounted to stepping into the 2024 Democratic primary. Jordan also defended his witness track record, saying that he’s “invited more Democrats than probably Democrats have.”
Democrats aren't concerned that Kennedy poses a real threat to Biden's nomination. Their real worry is the effect that minor candidates — or even a dark horse third-party candidate — could have on the general election, possibly cannibalizing Biden's votes in favor of the Republican nominee.
“If you said you're running for president, in the Democratic primary against Joe Biden, what is your motive? Why are you doing this?” said Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), a close Biden confidant. “Just because somebody calls themselves a Democrat doesn’t mean they are a Democrat.”
As the veteran South Carolina Democrat saw it, “there's nobody in his or her right mind who believes that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is going to be President of the United States of America or is going to be a representative of the Democratic Party.”
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