Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that the Democratic Party needs to be restored to a trusted “template of democracy” and called on President Joe Biden to debate him.
“We’re living in a time in this country when there’s so many Americans who feel like this whole system, the economic system and the political system, are rigged against them, but also that elections are actually rigged. And I think it’s really important that the Democratic Party make itself a template for democracy,” Kennedy told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Thursday night.
The scion of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy called on Biden, who hasn’t publicly acknowledged Kennedy’s primary challenge, to engage in conversations and debate to restore what he described as a “template for democracy.” He suggested that Biden and other Democrats are not being sufficiently “questioned by the public.”
“That’s the only way that you really understand the desperation that Americans are living in today, to go out and talk to them without that kind of insulation,” Kennedy remarked. “I think it’s really important for us to show we’re a real democracy, that we’re going to talk to our adversaries, that we’re going to win in the marketplace of ideas, and that this isn’t the kind of Soviet system where the party picks the candidates and then tells you who to vote for—that it’s actually a real election.”
Continuing, he then called on Biden to respond. “I hope at some point President Biden will share my sympathies and will debate his opponents,” Kennedy added.
When questioned by Ingraham if he would support Biden if the president gets the nomination, Kennedy said that he “expect[s] to be the nominee” and “I do not have a plan B.” Kennedy also said he would consider joining a Republican presidential administration if he was asked and if the GOP nominee wins the general election next year.
Also in the interview, Kennedy, an environmental lawyer who is perhaps best known for his criticism of certain childhood vaccines, made reference to lockdowns and rules that were implemented across the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They suspended the First Amendment on religion, freedom of association when they did the lockdowns, freedom of speech. They banned jury trials against vaccine companies—that’s the 7th Amendment,” he said. “They abolished property rights—5th Amendment. They closed 3.3 million businesses with no due process, no just compensation.”
“The Constitution was written for hard times,” he stated. “And we need to restore that. That there’s no excuse for suspending our Constitution.”
Kennedy, the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, faces what some analysts say is an uphill battle to take on Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination. While polls have shown Kennedy getting as much as 20 percent support among Democrats, Biden far surpassed him.
But polls have shown that Biden’s approval rating appears to be slipping. A Washington Post-ABC News survey released earlier this month shows that in a hypothetical 2024 general election, Biden is falling behind Trump.
Some 44 percent of respondents said they would “probably” or “definitely” vote for Trump while only 38 percent said the same thing for Biden. Some 12 percent are undecided, the survey revealed. “When the undecideds are asked how they lean, it’s 49-42 percent, Trump-Biden,” an accompanying ABC News article said.
That ABC poll also found that 63 percent of American adults do not believe Biden, 80, possesses the “mental sharpness” to perform his duties as president, representing a 9-percent increase year-over-year. About 32 percent believe otherwise, and 5 percent have no opinion, the survey found.
Weeks after announcing his 2024 bid, Kennedy made headlines when he told news outlets that he believes the CIA was involved in the assassination of former President Kennedy in 1963. He’s also previously said that he doesn’t believe the official narrative surrounding his own father’s assassination five years later.
Days later, former President Donald Trump, a Republican candidate for president, publicly vowed to release all the materials surrounding Kennedy’s assassination. Biden released some more materials last year but
About 4,300 Kennedy assassination records remain redacted and are blacked out, according to the CIA. “We believe all CIA records substantively related to [former CIA agent George] Joannides were previously released, with only minor redactions, such as CIA employees’ names and locations,” the agency said in a news release last year.
The CIA, which did not respond to an Epoch Times request for comment last month, has previously signaled that it wasn’t involved in the former president’s death, while the Warren Commission report has claimed that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone suspect. Over the years, surveys have shown that most Americans do not believe the official narrative and say that more than one person was involved in JFK’s killing.
The Epoch Times has contacted Biden’s campaign for comment.
