MSNBC’s Jen Psaki knocked Republicans’ “fixation” and “obsession” with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., taking aim at conservatives – and Fox News – for giving attention to “a candidate enamored with conspiracies.”
The host highlighted the amount of airtime that Fox has provided the conspiracy theorist and “longshot” Democratic presidential candidate, who she referred to as a “new favorite Democrat” for the GOP on Sunday.
Psaki slammed Republicans for their “eager” platforming of Kennedy, who recently bashed censorship at a House hearing and made headlines due to his claims that COVID-19 “ethnically targeted” certain races.
“I couldn’t even cover all these outlandish, crazy claims… but RFK Jr. has a long list of them and I’d like to know which ones make House Republicans so eager to platform him or maybe 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,” she said of Kennedy, who has sparked the interest of several conservatives.
“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.”
Psaki, who pointed out the GOP’s embrace of other “candidates enamored with conspiracies” in President Donald Trump, later declared that there are two explanations for the right’s love of Kennedy.
“One is that they genuinely believe in him and that his conspiracies deserve to be amplified in the national conversation… The other explanation is that they don’t believe RFK Jr. but believed that it would be beneficial to them if they help boost his megaphone anyway,” she argued.
“So no 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.”
Kennedy currently lags in polls on the Democratic Party’s 2024 primary battle, trailing President Joe Biden by over 50 percentage points, according to The Washington Post.
