Kennedy criticizes Biden and Trump for pandemic measures in speech at the libertarian convention

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused Joe Biden and Donald Trump on Friday of trampling on personal freedoms in response to the pandemic that spanned their presidencies.

Kennedy, who has long claimed to be a victim of government and media censorship of his unorthodox views, said Americans had lost faith in their leaders and institutions and promised to restore it.

“Maybe a brain worm ate that part of my memory, but I don’t remember any part of the Constitution of the United States where there is an exemption for pandemics,” Kennedy said, referring to a New York Times report that he was diagnosed more than a decade ago. ago with a parasite that lodged itself in his brain.

“Neither of them defended the Constitution when it really mattered,” he said of the current and former presidents.

Kennedy spoke at the Libertarian Party convention in Washington as he seeks to increase his support base among Americans dissatisfied with the Republican and Democratic parties. He has formed alliances with smaller parties that span the ideological spectrum to gain access to the ballot box in November and the debate next month.

Kennedy spoke publicly about pursuing the Libertarian nomination as a way to ensure access to the ballot box, which sparked controversy in the party, where some members objected to supporting a candidate who is not always in tune with their limited views of government. His mere presence at the convention was controversial, with some delegates trying to block his speech. Kennedy was not on the list of nominees from which a libertarian presidential candidate will be selected on Saturday.

Taking his name from one of the Democratic Party’s most famous political dynasties, Kennedy acknowledged his differences with libertarians but focused on his opinion that the Biden and Trump administrations overstepped during the pandemic.

Trump, he said, was wrong to close deals and shield companies from liability in developing products to respond to the pandemic. And Biden has violated Americans’ fundamental freedoms with his support of vaccine mandates, Kennedy said. The mandates, which aimed to require vaccines for up to 100 million workers, were partially blocked in the courts and in Congress, and most of the remainder ended in 2023, with the Biden administration calling them tremendously beneficial.

Kennedy also took aim at social media companies that he said bowed to government pressure to block dissenting opinions about the origins of COVID-19 and the safety of vaccines.

“Democratic and Republican administrations have taken turns attacking our constitutional rights and freedoms,” Kennedy said.

He repeated his pledge to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is fighting extradition from the UK on US spying charges, and to drop charges against Edward Snowden, a former intelligence contractor who revealed surveillance programs confidential US security to capture communications and data from around the world. world.

Trump is scheduled to speak at the Libertarian convention on Saturday, courting a segment of mostly conservative voters who have often been skeptical of him while trying to ensure attendees are not drawn to Kennedy.

Vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in laboratory tests and real-world use in hundreds of millions of people over decades. The World Health Organization attributes childhood vaccines to preventing up to 5 million deaths per year.

The COVID-19 vaccine has also been found to be safe and effective in testing and real-world use. Although no medical intervention is risk-free, doctors and researchers have proven that the risks of disease are generally much greater than the risks of vaccines.

An anti-vaccine group led by Kennedy has a pending lawsuit against a number of news organizations, including the Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking steps to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. to COVID-19. Kennedy said goodbye to the group when he announced his candidacy for president, but is listed as one of its lawyers in the lawsuit.