Legendary guitarist Eric Clapton performed at a private event to help raise $2.2 million for anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s presidential campaign, it has been revealed.
Clapton, who is also a vocal anti-vaccine, played guitar alongside his band at a private estate in Brentwood, near Los Angeles, on Monday evening.
The fundraiser, where tickets cost up to $6,600 for guests wanting to meet Clapton, raised $2.2 million – $1 million for Kennedy Jr’s campaign and $1.2 million for a PAC supporting the Democrat.
Kennedy Jr shared footage of Clapton performing outside to his presidential slogan “Heal the Divide” as hundreds of guests watched from their tables set under fairy lights.
It’s no surprise that Clapton decided to help Kennedy Jr with fundraising, as the two men are both prominent anti-vax conspiracy theorists.
The guitarist has written songs in recent years condemning Covid vaccines and has even compared confinements to slavery.
Legendary guitarist Eric Clapton performed at a private event to help raise $2.2 million for anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign.
It’s no surprise that Clapton decided to help Kennedy Jr (pictured on Friday in Los Angeles) raise money, as the pair are both prominent anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorists.
“I am deeply grateful to Eric Clapton for bringing his musical talent and rebellious spirit to my gathering in Los Angeles,” said an elated Kennedy Jr. after the performance.
“I sometimes think that in our divided society, it is music rather than any sort of intellectual agreement that has the most potential to bring us together again. Eric sings from the depths of the human condition,” Kennedy Jr. continued.
“If he sees in me the possibility of bringing unity to our country, it is only possible because artists like him invoke a buried faith in the unlimited power of the human being to overcome any obstacle.”
Kennedy challenges Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination. Biden leads over 50 points in the polls. But polls also show that voters fear that at 80, Biden will become too old to do the job.
Like Clapton, Kennedy continued to spout debunked conspiracy theories about the Covid vaccine.
In June, he reiterated his claims that Covid vaccines cause autism during his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
“Everyone will say, ‘There’s no study that shows autism and vaccines are linked.’ That’s just crazy. These are people who aren’t interested in science. It’s part of religion.
The Democrat made his name as a prominent anti-vaccine, but his involvement in the anti-vaccine movement intensified after the pandemic and the development of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The guitarist (pictured performing in Hollywood in 2021) has in recent years written songs condemning Covid vaccines and has even compared lockdowns to slavery.
His anti-vaccine charity, Children’s Health Defense, thrived at the time, with revenue more than doubling in 2020 to $6.8 million, according to filings with charity regulators.
His organization targeted false claims at groups that might be more likely to distrust the vaccine, including mothers and Black Americans, experts said, which could have led to deaths during the pandemic.
Kennedy Jr published a book in 2021, The Real Anthony Fauci, in which he accused America’s top infectious disease doctor of contributing to “a historic coup against Western democracy” by promoting unproven treatments against COVID-19 such as ivermectin, which is intended to treat parasites, and the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine.
His campaign against the COVID-19 vaccine has at times linked him to anti-democratic figures and groups.
Kennedy Jr appeared at events pushing the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and with people who cheered or downplayed the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6.
Kennedy Jr. has sometimes invoked his family’s legacy in his anti-vaccine work, including sometimes using images of President John F. Kennedy.
His sister Kerry Kennedy, who runs Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the international rights group founded by their mother, Ethel, said her brother sometimes removed some of the content at her request.
She told the Associated Press in a 2021 interview his brother is “completely wrong on this issue and is very dangerous.”
Kennedy Jr also continued to insist he should have Secret Service protection as he claims he could be assassinated.
On Monday, Kennedy Jr urged Biden to protect himself after a gunman was arrested at his campaign event over the weekend, just two miles from where his father was murdered in 1968. The suspect was seen arrested by police after claiming to be with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s security team.
Kennedy Jr., 69, has repeatedly claimed that the CIA was involved in the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy (pictured) in Dallas, Texas, in 1963.
On Monday, Kennedy Jr urged Biden to protect himself after a gunman was arrested at his campaign event over the weekend – just two miles from where his father was assassinated in 1968.
“The threat level to our candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., increases every day. He is not the only one who is in danger: everyone who attends a campaign event is in danger,” Kennedy campaign manager Dennis Kucinich wrote to the president.
Kucinich, in his missive, referenced the armed shooter arrested over the weekend and the history of assassinations of political figures. Kennedy’s father, Robert Kennedy, was shot to death in Los Angeles in 1968, and his uncle John F. Kennedy was shot to death in Dallas in 1963.