Gerry Connolly of Virginia said Kennedy holds “vile” beliefs. Speaker Kevin McCarthy took a similar view, saying he did not want to censor Kennedy.Īhead of the hearing, Democratic Rep. Jordan said that while he disagreed with Kennedy’s remarks, he was not about to drop him from the panel. An appellate court temporarily paused the order.īut Kennedy has a history of comparing vaccines - widely credited with saving millions of lives - with the genocide of the Holocaust during Nazi Germany, comments for which he has sometimes apologized.Īn organization that Kennedy founded, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. The hearing comes after a federal judge recently sought to halt the Biden administration from working with the social media companies to monitor misinformation and other online postings. “This is not the kind of free speech I know,” Plaskett said. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, said the Republican majority was giving a platform to Kennedy and others to promote conspiracy theories and a rallying cry for “bigotry and hate.” The top Democrat on the House panel, Del. And researchers have not found widespread evidence that social media companies are biased against conservative news, posts or materials. The Big Tech companies have adamantly denied the GOP assertions and say they enforce their rules impartially for everyone regardless of ideology or political affiliation. Kennedy’s presidential campaign chairman, Dennis Kucinich, the former congressman and past presidential contender, sat in the front row behind him. Republicans are eager to elevate Kennedy after he announced in April he was mounting a long-shot Democratic primary challenge to President Joe Biden. “It was a speech that nobody likes you for.” “The First Amendment was not written for easy speech,” Kennedy said. Kennedy defended his social media posts, which have delved into race, vaccine safety and other issues, as neither “racist or antisemitic.” He said his family has long believed in the First Amendment right to free speech. Kennedy and the nephew of President John F. “This is an attempt to censor a censorship hearing,” said Kennedy, the son of Roberts F. In opening remarks, Kennedy invoked his famous family’s legacy in decrying the complaints of racism and antisemitism against him. The Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government is amplifying GOP claims that conservatives and others are being unfairly targeted by technology companies that routinely work with the government to try to stem the spread of disinformation online. Kennedy Jr. defended himself Thursday against accusations that he traffics in racist and hateful online conspiracy theories, testifying at a House hearing on government censorship despite requests from outside groups to disinvite the Democratic presidential candidate after his recent antisemitic remarks.
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