Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared to shrug off allegations of antisemitism during an event hosted by celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Tuesday and said the accusations had been “weaponized” against him.
Kennedy is seeking to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nomination and was appearing at a World Values Network presidential candidate series event in New York, where he said he had “never said an antisemitic word in my life.”
His comments come following criticism after an article in the New York Post cited a video showing Kennedy making comments about COVID-19 and specific ethnic groups.
“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” Kennedy Jr. said, according to the article in the Post last week.
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Kennedy demanded a retraction and an apology from the newspaper for the piece, which he described as “false, underhanded, and inflammatory.”
On Tuesday, Boteach dismissed accusations that Kennedy is antisemitic, calling the idea “a disgusting, dirty lie” before going on to ask Kennedy about his week.
Kennedy discussed his appearance before the House Select Subcommittee to discus the “weaponization of the federal government,” the criticism he received from Democrats on the committee and accusations of antisemitism.
The hearing on July 20 came shortly after House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan was encouraged to cancel Kennedy Jr.’s testimony by Democrats following the New York Post report.
“I have a thick skin. I’ve been involved in controversial issues for most of my career and usually stuff—even vitriol and poison—does not affect me very much or it really doesn’t affect me at all. My wife actually complains about that, but the charge of antisemitism is one that cuts me,” Kennedy said.
“It hurts me. It hurts Cheryl [Kennedy’s wife]. It hurts our family and so that was painful,” he said.
Discussing his appearance before the House committee, Kennedy went on: “I’ve literally never said an antisemitic word in my life.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Kennedy campaign via email for further comment.
During a sometimes rowdy event on Tuesday, Kennedy talked about having studied the Holocaust before Boteach asked him about his remarks about COVID-19 targeting specific ethnic groups.
Kennedy claimed that he had been censored both by the Biden administration and the Trump administration and that some people still wanted to censor him.
“And I, as a candidate who’s aware of these things, I should have been more careful about what I said because I know anything I say will be distorted and weaponized against me,” Kennedy said.
He has also faced criticism for his views on vaccination and has been an outspoken critic of vaccines. Boteach has publicly praised the COVID-19 vaccine and said he has had four shots.
“There’s a way to censor people through targeted character assassination—you use vile accusations to marginalize them, and that is the kind of censorship I’m now dealing with,” Kennedy said on Tuesday.
On Monday, Kennedy accused the Democratic National Committee of attempting to sabotage Boteach’s event after the New York Society for Ethical Culture pulled out of hosting it, saying it was “inconsistent with the kind of programming that we support and promote and is inconsistent with many of the values we represent.”