Corporate media “fact-checkers” have swarmed all over a statement made by presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding the “threat to democracy” posed by Democrat President Joe Biden.
As Slay News reported, Kennedy warned during a CNN interview on Monday that Biden is a “much worse threat to democracy” than President Donald Trump.
During a Fox News interview on Tuesday, RFK Jr. doubled down on the statement.
However, as Kennedy’s left-wing campaign threatens to draw voters from Biden, the weaponized “fact-checking” industry has been scrambling to shut down the claims.
Multiple corporate media “fact-checkers” have rushed to “debunk” Kennedy’s opinion that Biden is a “much worse threat to democracy” than Trump.
Kennedy was bludgeoned for his comment.
The Washington Post’s Philip Bump and CNN’s Daniel Dale both accused the presidential candidate of spreading so-called “misinformation.”
They also accused Kennedy of implicating Biden in actions taken by his administration that he wasn’t explicitly involved in.
Other prominent pundits, like the co-hosts of ABC’s “The View” and CNN host Dana Bash, also attacked RFK Jr. for the claim.
“I can make the argument that President Biden is a much worse threat to democracy,” Kennedy told a stunned Erin Burnett on CNN Monday.
“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 or censor his opponent.”
Kennedy continued by explaining that, like many other Americans, he was personally targetted by Biden’s censorship agenda.
“The greatest threat to democracy is not somebody who questions election returns but a President of the United States who will use 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, CIA, the IRS, the NIH, to censor his political critics,” he added.
He also accused Biden of “weaponizing” the U.S. Secret Service against him by denying him protection.
Kennedy told the CNN host that Biden’s behavior has been worse than anything Trump has been accused of.
Shortly after Kennedy’s appearance on Burnett’s show, CNN “fact-checker” Daniel Dale pounced on Kennedy’s comments.
“First of all, there is no evidence that President Biden has been at all personally involved in decisions about who should and should not get Secret Service protection,” Dale said.
However, Dale offered no evidence to support any of the claims made against Trump.
He continued, “Secondly, I think it’s important to note that there are federal criteria for who gets said protection, including such things as being the nominee of a major party, which Mr. Kennedy is not, being at 15% or higher consistently for a month in the Real Clear Politics polling average, which Mr. Kennedy currently is not.”
Dale added how the secretary of Homeland Security “can decide to offer” protection but hasn’t while claiming that Biden wasn’t involved in the decision.
Yet, Dale offered no evidence to support the claims that Biden played no role in this decision.
He then went after the censorship claims, stating, “We know there is a controversy about White House communications with social media companies about what posts and accounts should remain up or not.
“There is no evidence that Biden has been involved whatsoever.”
Washington Post columnist Philip Bump went after Kennedy in an analysis piece titled, “Misinformation-spouting RFK Jr. muses that Biden is threat to democracy.”
“Everything Kennedy said in the quotes above is false or misleading,” Bump wrote, referencing the candidate’s saying Biden is “much worse” than Trump.
Bump said Kennedy’s claims of censorship weren’t true because, while the Biden White House emailed X, “WONDERING IF WE CAN GET MOVING ON THE PROCESS FOR HAVING IT REMOVED ASAP,” for one of Kennedy’s tweets, it was not ultimately taken down.
On Tuesday, CNN anchor Dana Bash gave what she called an “important fact-check” to his claims.
“Now, let‘s just be very clear,” she said.
“This is an important fact check. Joe Biden wasn‘t setting out to censor Kennedy‘s speech or his political critics.
“His administration was encouraging social media sites to monitor and take down false information about the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s no evidence that Biden himself was involved.”
The hosts of ABC’s “The View” also scrambled to trash Kennedy’s claims to its left-wing audience on Tuesday.
The show deemed Kennedy to be a “threat” to Biden’s re-election campaign.
Rather than countering Kennedy’s argument, the co-hosts instead chose to smear him as a “conspiracy theorist” who is “anti-science.”
“Meanwhile, he is a conspiracy theorist, anti-science,” co-host Joy Behar said.
“His whole family is voting for Biden and this type of dangerous rhetoric that Biden is a bigger threat to democracy than the man who wanted to throw over the government, overthrow the government.”
Co-host Sara Haines agreed, adding that Kennedy Jr. was “wrong in what he was saying.”
Haines argued that “President Biden is not responsible for private social media companies.
“The First Amendment is for the government, it does not apply, necessarily, to private companies who decide to ban you.”
Behar followed up by calling the Independent candidate a “liar.”
Kennedy doubled down on his views during an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday.
“If you have a president who can censor his political opponents, he has the license for any kind of atrocity, that is a genuine threat to our democracy,” he said.
“What Trump said about… questioning the election and… to the extent that he engaged… in an effort to overthrow that, of course, that’s a threat to democracy, but it is not the worst threat undermining the First Amendment of our Constitution and then weaponizing the federal agencies, to get his opponents off the ballot.”
