Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he disagrees with Robert F. Kennedy’s comments about Covid-19 being engineered to spare Jewish people, but does not believe the Democratic presidential nominee should be “censored.”
The highly anticipated presidential candidate will testify before the House Judiciary’s Weaponization subcommittee this week — and McCarthy said he believes the testimony should go ahead as scheduled.
“I don’t agree with everything he says,” said the president of the House. “The hearing we have this week is about censorship. I don’t think censoring someone is the solution.’
Last week, Kennedy plunged into new depths of conspiracy theory when he reportedly claimed that Covid-19 was “ethnic” and that “the people most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
“We don’t know if it was intentional or not, but there are documents that show the racial or ethnic difference and the impact,” the Democratic nominee added, according to the New York Post.
This week, Kennedy will testify at a hearing on the federal government’s role in censorship. Other witnesses include Breitbart News journalist Emma-Jo Morris and Louisiana Department of Justice Special Assistant Attorney General D. John Sauer.
McCarthy said he disagrees with Robert F. Kennedy’s comments about Covid-19 being designed to spare Jewish people, but does not believe the Democratic presidential nominee should be “censored”
Last week, Kennedy plunged into new depths of conspiracy theory when he reportedly claimed that Covid-19 was “ethnic-focused” and that “the people most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
At the same time, McCarthy said his Democratic counterpart should punish Hakeem Jeffries Squad members for their anti-Semitic remarks.
“I think if the Democrats want to believe they don’t have a conference that continues to make anti-Semitic remarks, they need to do something about it, because they have defended these individuals time and time again,” the speaker told reporters.
“I think this is a role for the leader, Hakeem, to prove that they are not anti-Semitic and that they cannot allow their members to continue saying what they have said in the past,” he continued.
“These are all individuals in the Democratic conference. Do they think Israel is a bad state? Well, if they believe otherwise, they must take action against their own opinion for the comments coming from their leaders within their own Democratic Party.”
On Wednesday this week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will make remarks before a joint session of Congress — and a number of Progressive Democrats have said they will not attend the high-profile speech
On Wednesday this week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will deliver remarks at a joint session of Congress — and a number of progressive Democrats have said they will not attend the high-profile speech.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said over the weekend that Israel is a “racist state” — a comment she was later forced to retract.
“Hey guys, can I say something? Can I say something as someone who has been on the street and participated in many demonstrations?’ Jayapal said. “I want you to know that we fought to make it clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy, that the dream of a two-state solution is slipping away from us, that it doesn’t even feel possible.”
“Words matter and that’s why it’s important that I clarify my statement,” Jayapal said in a statement posted on Twitter. “I do not believe that the idea of Israel as a nation is racist.”
Herzog, the Israeli president, will visit the White House on Tuesday for talks with Joe Biden.
Protests have plagued Israel for months over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary.
The overhaul would allow Netanyahu’s allies to control the appointment of judges and give parliament the power to overturn court decisions.
Kennedy responded to the accusations that he is an anti-Semite by accusing the New York Post of “being mistaken.”
“I never suggested that the COVID-19 virus was intended to spare Jews,” he tweeted.
“I carefully pointed out — during an off-the-record conversation — that the US and other governments are developing ethnically targeted biological weapons and that a 2021 study of the COVID-19 virus shows that COVID-19 appears disproportionate to certain races since the Furin Cleave docking site is most compatible with blacks and whites and least compatible with ethnic Chinese, Finns and Ashkenazi Jews,” he continued.
‘In that sense, it serves as a kind of proof of concept for ethnically targeted bioweapons. I do not believe and have never suggested that the ethnic effect was deliberately manipulated,” the Democrat added.