Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims President Joe Biden is a greater threat to democracy than former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy made his remarks during a Monday appearance on CNN's OutFront with host Erin Burnett.
During the interview, Burnett asked the presidential candidate if he believed critics of Trump who have suggested he is a threat to democracy.
“I can make the argument that President Biden is a much worse threat to democracy,” Kennedy responded. “And the reason for that is President Biden is the first candidate in history, the first president in history that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech, so to censor his opponent."
Kennedy cited his recent win in the federal appeals court against Biden, which is heading to the Supreme Court.
"He started censoring not just me, but 37 hours after he took the oath of office, he was censoring me.” Kennedy added.
“No president in the country has ever done that,” Kennedy continued. “The greatest threat to democracy is not somebody who questions election returns, but a president of the United States who uses the power of his office to force the social media companies, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter to open a portal and give access to that portal to the FBI, to the CIA, to the IRS, to CISA, to NIH to censor his political critics.”
“President Biden, the first president in history, used his power over the Secret Service to deny Secret Service protection to one of his political opponents for political reasons," he said, referring to himself. "He’s weaponizing the federal agencies. Those are really critical threats to democracy.”
Burnett asked Kennedy for clarification that he believed Biden was a greater threat to democracy than Trump, to which the independent candidate doubled down.
“Absolutely,” Kennedy said. “Who else has ever tried to ... what president in history has ever tried to censor political opponents? What president has weaponized the federal agency?"
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.”
