Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pushing back on the claim he made a “definitive” statement that President Joe Biden is a bigger threat to democracy than his predecessor.
Kennedy appeared on NewsNation for interview with journalist Chris Cuomo and was asked about stories that stated he asserted Biden is a bigger threat than former President Donald Trump.
“Do you want people to believe that you think that President Biden has done more objectionable things vis-a-vis our democracy than former President Trump did in the aftermath of the last election?” Cuomo asked.
Kennedy responded, “What I said was that I can make this argument, and I didn’t say definitively whether I believed one or the other was more dangerous to democracy.”
“I did say that I don’t believe either of them are gonna destroy democracy,” he added.
Watch the video below:
RFK Jr. walks back saying “I can make the argument that President Biden is a much worse threat to democracy” than Donald Trump:
— The Recount (@therecount) April 3, 2024
“I didn't say definitively. … I don't believe either of them are going to destroy democracy.” pic.twitter.com/FhCkbsJtzZ
Kennedy went on:
“I’m very grateful, by the way, to Erin Burnett. As you know, CNN has not let me on for a live interview in a decade. And she did that — she was very, very courageous. She gave me a very fair interview; I was really dumbfounded about how fair it was. She pushed back on me a lot, and she doesn’t agree with me obviously on stuff, but she actually let me speak, which was — I’m grateful for it.”
He added, “When CNN Digital got it, they cut my quote so it looked like I was making this definitive statement that Biden was more of a threat to democracy than Trump. But of course, I never said that. But that’s the way it made me look crazy to liberals.”
Kennedy’s clarification focuses on his use of the word “can” in the interview, and insists he was not making the claim as his own belief.
During his interview with CNN, Kennedy did not make a definitive statement that Biden is the bigger threat.
He said, “I can make the argument that President Biden is the much worse threat to democracy, 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 … to censor his opponent.”
