Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. busts Democrats claims on the events of Jan. 6, 2021. According to Kennedy, many prosecutions of the non-violent protesters at the U.S. Capitol were excessive and there is “little evidence” of an actual insurrection, like Democrats have claimed.
“January 6 is one of the most polarizing topics on the political landscape. I am listening to people of diverse viewpoints on it in order to make sense of the event and what followed. I want to hear every side,” the Independent candidate began in a statement on Friday.
“It is quite clear that many of the January 6 protestors broke the law in what may have started as a protest but turned into a riot,” he continued. “Because it happened with the encouragement of President Trump, and in the context of his delusion that the election was stolen from him, many people see it not as a riot but as an insurrection. I have not examined the evidence in detail, but reasonable people, including Trump opponents, tell me there is little evidence of a true insurrection. They observe that the protestors carried no weapons, had no plans or ability to seize the reins of government, and that Trump himself had urged them to protest ‘peacefully.’”
Kennedy went on to suggest that the prosecution and sentences handed down to the J6 defendants could have been politically motivated. “That would fit a disturbing pattern of the weaponization of government agencies — the DoJ, the IRS, the SEC, the FBI, etc. — against political opponents,” he wrote.
While he made it clear that he stands in opposition to former President Donald Trump, he expressed concern about the weaponization of government against him for political purposes.
He then promised to look into the matter if he is voted president and right any possible wrongs discovered.
Robert F Kennedy Jr vows to investigate January 6 prosecutions for political bias https://t.co/qg8ZHYC41A
— Guardian US (@GuardianUS) April 5, 2024
According to Kennedy, the events of Jan. 6, 2021 have been used by both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party to “pour fuel on the fire of America’s divisions.”
“Instead of demonizing our opponents as apocalyptic threats to democracy, let’s focus on the issues and priorities of how they will govern, and defeat them at the ballot box rather than through legal maneuvers and dirty tricks,” he called.
The pledge follows fundraising emails sent by Kennedy which called J6 defendants “activists sitting in a Washington DC jail cell stripped of their Constitutional liberties.”
However, the independent candidate’s campaign has denied that Kennedy wrote the emails or approved it.
In clarifying how the email was an error, campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear said, “That statement was an error that does not reflect Mr. Kennedy’s views. It was inserted by a new marketing contractor and slipped through the normal approval process. The campaign has terminated its contract with this vendor. Anybody who violated the law on Jan. 6 should be subject to appropriate criminal and/or civil penalties.”
