House Democrats fail to censor Robert F. Kennedy Jr over Covid, race comments

US House Democrats made an unsuccessful attempt to remove Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. from a hearing on federal government censorship. The hearing on 20 July was held to examine the "federal government's role in censoring Americans, the Missouri v. Biden case, and Big Tech's collusion with out-of-control government agencies to silence speech."

However, soon enough, it became a battleground for Democrats and Republicans as they clashed over the statements made by one of the witnesses,Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In the bitter showdown, Democrats accused Kennedy of violating House rules that are aimed at preventing defamatory or degrading testimony, reported Fox News. Responding to Democrats' efforts to silence him at the hearing, RFK Jr. said that they were essentially trying to censor a hearing that was meant to address censorship issues.

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"This is an attempt to censor a censorship hearing," Kennedy said.

Kennedy was invited by Republicans to testify at the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

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However, after Kennedy's opening remarks, US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida, sought to take the hearing into executive session to address RFK Jr.'s alleged violation of a House rule against defaming or degrading testimony.

Accusations of antisemitic and anti-Asian comments

Wasserman Schultz accused RFK, Jr. of making "despicable" antisemitic and anti-Asian comments, referring to his statement that COVID may have been "ethnically targeted" due to certain immune populations like Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.

RFK Jr. clarified that he was not accusing anyone of intentionally engineering COVID to spare specific ethnic groups.

Republicans voted down the halt attempt

Wasserman Schultz's motion to halt the hearing and move into executive session was rejected with a 10-8 vote. It was all because of the Republican majority in the committee.Some Democrats opposed the GOP's push to kill Wasserman Schultz's motion as they stated their opposition to hate speech.

Dispute over speaking time

Moreover, Democrat Stacey Plaskett also sought to limit RFK Jr.'s speaking time. She objected to Kennedy receiving 10 minutes when witnesses usually get 5 minutes.

US Representative Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, who chairs the subcommittee, explained that lawmakers and former lawmakers are often allowed more speaking time.

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However, the Democrats expressed their disagreement with Plaskett saying, "He’s neither."

In his opening remarks, RFK Jr. expressed his frustration with Democrats' attempts to censor his speech and his presidential campaign.

He cited an instance where his announcement speech was censored five minutes into it by YouTube.

"Censorship is antithetical to our party," he said adding, "It was appalling to my father, to my uncle, to FDR, to Harry Truman, to Thomas Jefferson as the chairman referred to. It is the basis for Democracy."

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"The First Amendment was not written for easy speech," he added. "It was written for the speech that nobody likes you for," Kennedy continued saying.

RFK Jr. also mentioned recent emails that showed the Biden administration trying to censor his comments about vaccines."They had to invent a new word called ‘malinformation’ to censor people like me," he said. "Malinformation is information that is true, but it is inconvenient to the government, that they don’t want people to hear."

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