Democratic presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ripped his own party in an interview with Newsmax this week, claiming members have no will or capacity to fix what ails the country.
Kennedy Jr. appeared on “The Record with Greta Van Susteren” on Tuesday and voiced his criticism towards the political direction of the party that his family has been associated with for more than 100 years, the news outlet reported.
“Listen, I have known President [Joe] Biden for 40 years. I’ve had a close personal relationship with him. My whole family has,” Kennedy Jr. acknowledged. But he clarified that he has some significant “political differences” with the president.
“I do not believe in censorship, … I think we’re ignoring what’s happening to the middle class,” he said, going on to rip the administration’s role in pushing the wars in Ukraine, Yemen, and Syria.
Kennedy Jr., who is the son of former U.S. attorney general and the assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, formally announced his decision to challenge Biden in the presidential race on April 19th in Boston, Massachusetts.
In addition to his criticism of the party’s direction, Kennedy Jr. also strongly condemned it for disregarding the heartland of the country, including places like East Palestine, Ohio, and allowing the middle class to be destroyed.
“The Democratic Party seems to have lost its bearings and, you know, lost its will or even the capacity to think about changing the system,” Kennedy Jr. said.
Kennedy Jr. believes that the Democratic Party’s rumored decision not to host any presidential primary debates is a prime example of this neglect. This decision was made despite a recent poll showing that Kennedy Jr. would receive 14% of the vote, which is well above past thresholds, Newsmax noted further.
“I think that’s a bad thing for democracy. I think … right now, there’s so many people who think that the system is rigged against them — the economic system and the political system. And they’ve lost faith in American democracy,” Kennedy Jr. said.
“They need to debate in front of the people. They need to do town halls and listen to what people are saying to them,” he added.
He echoed similar sentiments as one of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s last guests.
“The general theme in my speech was this corrupt merger of state and corporate power, which has which is turning our country into a corporate kleptocracy. Into a system of… cushy socialism for the rich and this kind of brutal, merciless capitalism for the poor,” he said last week.
“We have 57% of American citizens could not put their hands on a thousand dollars if they have an emergency. A quarter of our citizens are hungry. So we’re cutting welfare and food stamps by 90 percent, and we’re paying and we’re bailing out the bankers, we’re paying for a war that, you know, we can’t afford” in Ukraine, he added.
