RFK Jr. Repeats Russian Propaganda on Ukraine

Robert Kennedy Jr.’s political beliefs are starting to come into focus, and that might not be a good thing for his hopes of becoming president.

On Friday, Kennedy questioned what happened at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, promising to appoint a special counsel if he’s elected to investigate the prosecutions of those who attacked the Capitol.

“I have not examined the evidence in detail, but reasonable, including Trump opponents, tell me there is little evidence of a true insurrection,” the independent candidate said in a lengthy statement Friday.

Then, in an interview with Twins Podcast, F. Kennedy Jr. parroted Russian propaganda almost word for word when discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that Putin just wanted to "de-Nazify" Ukraine.

"Putin said 'Look I don't want to go into Crimea. Let's negotiate a peace,’” Kennedy said. “Alright, and the three things he wanted — he wanted to keep NATO out of Ukraine. That was number one. He wanted to de-Nazify the Ukrainian government."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish.

Putin said in televised remarks in February 2022 that his goal was to "seek to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation."

Many Holocaust experts have said his characterizations were grossly misrepresentative and part of an ongoing attempt to delegitimize Ukraine.

In 2022, NPR reported that a number of historians signed a letter condemning the Russian government's "cynical abuse of the term genocide, the memory of World War II and the Holocaust, and the equation of the Ukrainian state with the Nazi regime to justify its unprovoked aggression."

The historians stated that although Ukraine has right-wing extremists, it does not justify Russia's aggression and mischaracterization.

Kennedy’s statement on Jan. 6 came after his staff was forced to walk back a fundraising email Thursday that called the people who attacked the Capitol “J6 activists.”

On Friday, Kennedy said the day 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,” Kennedy said. “I want to hear every side.”