GEIS-新闻详情

Psaki accuses Fox of flirting with Robert F Kennedy Jr: ‘Pretty embarrassing look’

2023-07-28 00:00:00.0 独立报-美国政治原网页

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email

Please enter a valid email address

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Washington email

{{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }}

MSNBC host and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki took aim at rival news network Fox over the weekend as the network once again turned to Robert F Kennedy Jr, conspiracist and vaccine sceptic, for commentary.

During a segment of her Sunday show Inside with Jen Psaki, the former top aide to Joe Biden squarely hypothesised that the GOP and Fox in particular were hoping to elevate Mr Kennedy’s national profile in the desperate hope of harming Mr Biden’s re-election chances, given that Mr Kennedy is running as a Democrat against the incumbent Democratic president.

Her remarks came after Mr Kennedy has become somewhat of a darling of alternative media outlets eager to cash in on the “what the mainstream media won’t tell you” narrative that has become a centrepoint of his campaign.

She theorised: “[M]aybe it’s really not about RFK Jr. at all, but instead about Joe Biden. Like the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. That may make more strategic sense, but it would be incredibly cynical if Republicans were elevating a conspiracy theorist who spews false and inaccurate lies, some that could even be damaging to the public and public health, just to create trouble for their political opponent.

Recommended House Oversight Committee Democrats say Republicans’ Hunter Biden gambit jeopardises national security Buoys, razor wire, and a Trump-y wall: How Greg Abbott turned the Rio Grande into an immigration ‘war zone’ JFK’s grandson calls RFK Jr an embarrassment to the family name

“I mean, that would be a leap even for the right to embrace a candidate enamored with conspiracies just as a means to advance their own political objectives. They’ve never sunk that low before,” Ms Psaki then quipped with some sarcasm. She later declared: “[N]o matter how bizarre and dangerous his conspiracies may be, it doesn’t matter. One explanation is ignorance, the other is cynicism. Both are a pretty embarrassing look for the right-wing machine trying to prop up this man’s campaign.”

The longshot presidential contender most recently came under fire for comments he made suggesting that some viruses including Covid-19 could be targeted by nefarious sources to affect some populations or ethnicities more than others — comments that led to accusations of antisemitism, thanks to his assertion that the virus may have been “ethnically targeted” to affect Blacks and Caucasians more than people of Ashkenazi Jewish and Chinese descent.

Like most conspiracy-pushers, Mr Kennedy has insisted that he was not spreading misinformation because he did not specifically state that the assertion was true, merely instead floating it as a possibility. Critics argue that doing so allows Mr Kennedy to signal to conspiracy theorists and their followers while keeping some distance between himself and the claims themselves.

Recommended How prosecutors could charge Trump with racketeering in Georgia case Fox News left confused by map that shows Republicans loving Barbie – despite conservative pundit backlash Why the media fears creating Trump 2.0 in Robert F Kennedy Jr

And Mr Kennedy has attacked any type of authority figure that can parse his medical conspiracies and provide accurate scientific data for Americans to make their own choices. The Democratic candidate has publicly promised to defund agencies that authorise medical treatments to hit hospitals and pharmacies around the country, while also vowing to use the power of the federal government in an unprecedented manner to exert his whims on the nation’s medical journals.

Promoted stories

Dotmalls

The Pond Colorful Fountain Attracts Hummingbirds, Birds and ButterfliesDotmalls

Undo

by Taboola by Taboola