Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

‘I didn’t say those things’: RFK Jr. denounces those who accuse him of promoting antisemitic COVID-19 conspiracy theory

Kennedy has been condemned by major Jewish groups for saying the coronavirus was ‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Ashkenazi Jews

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Democratic presidential candidate accused of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories about COVID-19, aggressively pushed back against his critics during a House hearing on Thursday. Republican leaders had refused requests by House Democrats to disinvite Kennedy over his remarks about Jews.

“In my entire life, I have never uttered a phrase that was either racist or antisemitic,” RJK Jr. said in an opening statement at a hearing on government censorship held by a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee. “There is no evidence of that.”

RFK Jr. on COVID-19

The political scion, 69, a vaccine skeptic who has associated himself with conspiracy theorists, was condemned by major Jewish groups and politicians for falsely claiming — in a video published on Saturday — that COVID-19 was an “ethnically targeted” bioweapon that spared Jews and Chinese people. His comments drew on a blend of old and new hatreds about Jews, falsehoods about how they are responsible for disease in general and complicit in the  COVID-19 pandemic in particular.

Holding up a letter signed by more than 100 House Democrats urging the cancellation of his testimony, RJK Jr. said his remarks have been distorted for political reasons. “I didn’t say those things,” he said. “I denounce anybody who uses the words that I have said to imply something that is negative about people who are Jewish. I never said those things.”

Invoking Israel

Kennedy went on to claim he has “a better record on Israel” than anybody in Congress. “I’ve fought more ferociously for Israel than anybody, but I am being censored here,” he said. “I don’t believe there’s a single person who signed this letter who believes I’m antisemitic.”

The presidential candidate had also lashed out against his critics in the days before the hearing. In one instance he accused Jon Levine, the Jewish New York Post reporter who broke the story about his remarks, of devaluing the term antisemitism and “inflaming fear, hate, and suspicion.”

RJK Jr. is expected to hold a campaign event on Tuesday to discuss antisemitism and Israel. It is being hosted by celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who has come to Kennedy’s defense, in New York City. In a statement, Kennedy said “no subject will be off limits” at the event.

“At this dangerous time for American and world Jewry, where antisemitism is on the rise across the globe, it is imperative that those seeking the presidency deliver their unambiguous proposals for combatting Jew-hatred,” he said.

At the hearing, Jewish Democrats challenged Kennedy to clarify his comments. “Tour rhetoric creates a climate of mistrust, antagonism, and even hatred or violence against Jewish people,” Florida’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a tense exchange with RJK Jr., citing his past comments comparing vaccine and mask mandates to the Holocaust. Kennedy in return accused her of slander and lying about his statements.

Dan Goldman, a first-term Democrat from New York played a video of last week’s remarks and asked Kennedy whether he “should be worried about my genetics as an Ashkenazi Jew” since he contracted Covid in March of 2020. “Not at all,” Kennedy replied.

This post has been updated.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.