Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doubled down on his Monday statement with CNN declaring President Joe Biden a greater threat to democracy than former President Donald Trump.
During a Tuesday appearance on Fox News, host Lawrence Jones asked Kennedy why he believed Biden posed a greater threat to democracy, to which Kennedy clarified he could "make that argument," adding it was a discussion he believed should be had leading up to November's election.
"President Biden has done something that no other president in history has done which is to order media, particularly social media ... to censor his political opponents," Kennedy said. "And I can say this because I just won a lawsuit in the federal court of appeals, now before the Supreme Court, because he began censoring me 37 hours after he took the oath of office swearing to defend the Constitution."
The independent candidate noted White House officials had instructed Facebook to remove Kennedy's posts, which were critical of the COVID-19 vaccine.
"Facebook actually pushed back and said, 'There's no misinformation here ... what he's saying here is accurate,'" Kennedy continued, adding his posts were later labeled "malinformation," which he described as information that is accurate though "inconvenient."
"If you have a president who can censor his political opponent, he has license for any kind of atrocity," Kennedy said. "That is a genuine threat to our democracy."
Kennedy conceded that he believed Trump's questioning of the 2020 presidential election results was indeed a threat to democracy, though wasn't the "worst" and didn't undermine the First Amendment.
The independent candidate also noted he was denied secret service protection, adding, "That's never happened in history before."
Jones asked if Kennedy believed Biden and his administration were behind the decision to deny him secret service protection, to which the independent candidate agreed.
"Does he know that your dad was assassinated?" Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade asked.
"He has a bust of my father behind him," Kennedy said. "It's just not right ... the use of the courts, the use of the prosecutors, the use of all these federal agencies to change our political landscape is just wrong, and we should be debating about it."
Kennedy referred to Biden's targeting of his political opponents as "anti-American" and "anti-Democratic."
In late March, Kennedy announced attorney Nicole Shanahan as his running mate.
Critics of his selection noted Shanahan, who is the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, has historically donated to Democratic politicians and was a proponent of progressive criminal justice policies and abortion access.
“If Nicole and I can get Americans to refuse to vote from fear, we’re going to be in the White House in November,” Kennedy said during his announcement in Oakland, California. “Nicole and I are running to help heal the symptoms of an ailing America – to heal our divisions, to heal our economy, to heal our mental health and our spiritual and our physical health. But we can’t do it alone. We need you.”
