WASHINGTON — House Democrats are expected to send a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., on Tuesday, urging the leaders to to disinvite Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from an upcoming hearing and criticizing his recent comments on COVID-19 as antisemitic and racist.
“Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly and recently spread vile and dangerous antisemitic and anti-Asian conspiracy theories that tarnish his credibility as a witness and must not be legitimized with his appearance before the U.S. Congress nor given the platform of an official committee hearing to spread his baseless and discriminatory views,” a draft letter signed by Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., Daniel Goldman, D-N.Y., and Judy Chu, D-Calif., says.
Kennedy − a 2024 Democratic presidential candidate − is set to testify in a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the weaponization of the federal government on Thursday as a witness. But after the New York Post released a video recording last week of Kennedy spreading conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and Jewish and Chinese people, Democrats are pushing to remove him from the witness list.
Stay in the conversation on politics: Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter
“These false claims echo centuries of Jews being scapegoated and held collectively responsible for illnesses like the Black Plague − often as a precursor for massacres and pogroms, and Chinese immigrants being blamed for plague outbreaks since the mid-1800s,” the letter says. “The conspiracies promoted by Mr. Kennedy were made without any basis in scientific evidence, which is not a surprise, since no such evidence exists.”
When asked about calls to disinvite Kennedy, Jordan told Politico that while he “totally disagrees” with what Kennedy said, lawmakers will not censor him. Likewise, McCarthy told reporters on Monday he “disagrees with everything” Kennedy said, but declined to disinvite him.
Kennedy called the New York Post story “mistaken” in a statement on Twitter but continued to spread conspiracy theories about COVID-19.
Contributing: Associated Press
