Democrats Tried to Stop RFK Jr. from Testifying to Congress over “Antisemitic” Remarks

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified in front of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. But prior to his appearance, Democrat members attempted to block him from participating in the public hearing and move to executive session.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) argued that Kennedy was disqualified to appear before the committee in public on the grounds that he was an “antisemite” and in violation of House Rule XI Clause 2. She argued that this rule may be applied to reject testimony in a public hearing if the testimony “may tend to defame, degrade, or incriminate any person.”

“Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly made despicable antisemitic and anti-Asian comments just as recently as last week,” Wasserman Schultz, who is Jewish, said. She brought up a statement that Kennedy had made at a recent dinner, where he argued that COVID-19 was an “ethnic bioweapon” least likely to infect Ashkenazi Jews due to DNA characteristics.

The statement, first reported in a smear piece published in The New York Post, caused uproar in the media and Kennedy was accused of being an antisemite.

However, commentators pointed out that he actually was referring to a peer-reviewed study from July 2020 entitled “New insights into genetic susceptibility of COVID-19: an ACE2 and TMPRSS2 polymorphism analysis” which was published in the medical journal BMC Medicine. The thesis of certain ethnic groups having different genetic susceptibility to the virus has been presented in several other studies.

At the hearing, the motion to censor was voted on and failed with ten votes to let Kennedy appear and eight votes against. “No to hate speech,” Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) said as he voted with Wasserman Schultz. Ranking member Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) also voted no, including a tongue-in-cheek remark that she wanted to “follow the rules that the Republicans made.”

Several Republican members were vocal in their defense of free speech as they slammed Wasserman Schultz’s interpretation of the House Rules.

“Is it the custom of this committee to censor viewpoints that we disagree with from witnesses?” Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) said.

Once Kennedy was allowed to speak, he railed against government and Big Tech censorship of alternative viewpoints, before he spent several minutes on asserting his support for Jewish people and Israel. He called for an end to division and censorship in America.

“Kindness, compassion and empathy for other people is the only way to restore the function in this chamber … We need to give an example in the leadership of our country. Of being respectful,” Kennedy said, specifically addressing Rep. Plaskett’s assault on his character.

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) then seized the moment to in turn attack the ranking member over her alleged financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein.