UPDATE, 10:30 pm ET: Like Kerry, Robert’s nephew, Joe Kennedy III, who is a former U.S. representative from Massachusetts and now a special envoy to Northern Ireland for economic affairs, also condemned his uncle’s comments about COVID-19, in a Twitter post, which can be seen below. “My uncle’s comments were hurtful and wrong. I unequivocally condemn what he said,” his tweet read.
My uncle’s comments were hurtful and wrong. I unequivocally condemn what he said.
— Joe Kennedy III (@joekennedy) July 17, 2023
ORIGINAL:
Kerry Kennedy, 63, spoke out about her brother Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s recent remarks about how COVID-19 is targeted against certain ethnicities, in a new tweet. The lawyer and human rights activist, whose father is the late Robert F. Kennedy, took to Twitter to reveal she condemns the 69-year-old U.S. presidential candidate‘s take on the pandemic and even called his words “untruthful,” on July 17. “I STRONGLY condemn my brother’s deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting,” the tweet read.
I STRONGLY condemn my brother's deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting. https://t.co/9YCag7JtHm
— Kerry Kennedy (@KerryKennedyRFK) July 17, 2023
Kerry also included a link to a full statement she posted about Robert aka Bobby’s COVID-19 remarks, on the website for her family’s advocacy organization, RFK Human Rights. “[Bobby’s] statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stand for, with our 50+-year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination,” the statement read.
Kerry’s statement comes after Robert, who entered the presidential race in Apr., made his remarks at a private event in New York City last week. The moment was captured on video by the New York Post. “COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” he said during the event. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
The @nypost story is mistaken. I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews. I accurately pointed out — during an off-the-record conversation — that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 15, 2023
Robert, who has leaned into conspiracy theories about vaccines and COVID-19, gained criticism from several Jewish civil rights organizations after his comments went public, including Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee. “Every aspect of his comments reflects some of the most abhorrent antisemitic conspiracy theories throughout history and contributes to today’s dangerous rise of antisemitism,” Ted tweeted on July 15.
“Robert Kennedy Jr.’s comments also pose a threat to individuals of Chinese descent who have already faced unjust and dangerous vilification due to COVID. We must all reject such divisive rhetoric,” Ted also wrote.
Robert, himself, also responded to the backlash, and called the New York Post “mistaken” about his comments, in a tweet, which can be seen above. “I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews,” he wrote. “I accurately pointed out — during an off-the-record conversation — that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021 study of the COVID-19 virus shows that COVID-19 appears to disproportionately affect certain races since the furin cleave docking site is most compatible with Blacks and Caucasians and least compatible with ethnic Chinese, Finns, and Ashkenazi Jews. In that sense, it serves as a kind of proof of concept for ethnically targeted bioweapons. I do not believe and never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered.”
He also included a link to the study he was referring to. After the study was looked into, the New York Times reported that the research didn’t state the COVID-19 virus was targeting any one racial group, and it didn’t find that Chinese people are more receptive to the virus. It did, however, say that one receptor for the virus was not found among the Amish Ashkenazi Jewish populations.
In addition to his first tweet, Robert posted a second lengthy tweet, a couple of hours later, to further address the backlash from the New York Post story and video. “The insinuation by @nypost and others that, as as result of my quoting a peer-reviewed paper on bio-weapons, I am somehow antisemitic, is a disgusting fabrication,” he wrote in some of the tweet.
“I understand the emotional pain that these inaccurate distortions and fabrications have caused to many Jews who recall the blood libels of poison wells and the deliberate spread of disease as the pretext for genocidal programs against their ancestors,” he continued, before adding, “My father and my uncles, John F. Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy, devoted enormous political energies during their careers to supporting Israel and fighting antisemitism. I intend to spend my political career making those family causes my priority.”