{"id":4489,"date":"2023-07-21T13:13:10","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T18:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=4489"},"modified":"2023-07-21T13:13:11","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T18:13:11","slug":"rfks-congressional-hearing-was-basically-an-ouster-from-the-democratic-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=4489","title":{"rendered":"RFK\u2019s congressional hearing was basically an ouster from the Democratic Party"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20370%20247'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-103.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load wp-image-4490\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-103.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-103.png 1024w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-103-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-103-770x514.png 770w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-103-370x247.png 370w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-103-293x195.png 293w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-103-120x80.png 120w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-103-240x160.png 240w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-103-390x260.png 390w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. holds his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance before the start of a hearing with the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government (Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thursday\u2019s explosive congressional Weaponization subcommittee hearing didn\u2019t uncover any new evidence on government censorship, but it did serve as an unofficial excommunication of Robert F. Kennedy&nbsp;Jr. from the Democratic Party.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the House Judiciary Committee\u2019s three-hour hearing, Kennedy was relentlessly characterized by Democrats as a racist bigot spewing misinformation and hate. He was repeatedly denied the opportunity to respond to accusations or even answer questions by members of his own party who no longer claim him.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For House Democrats, it seems that Kennedy is the new Donald Trump. During her opening statement, Ranking Democrat Delegate Stacey Plaskett\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thursday\u2019s explosive congressional Weaponization subcommittee hearing didn\u2019t uncover any new evidence on government censorship, but it did serve as an unofficial excommunication of Robert F. Kennedy&nbsp;Jr. from the Democratic Party.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the House Judiciary Committee\u2019s three-hour hearing, Kennedy was relentlessly characterized by Democrats as a racist bigot spewing misinformation and hate. He was repeatedly denied the opportunity to respond to accusations or even answer questions by members of his own party who no longer claim him.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For House Democrats, it seems that Kennedy is the new Donald Trump. During her opening statement, Ranking Democrat Delegate Stacey Plaskett described Kennedy\u2019s \u201chateful, evidence-free rhetoric\u201d and accused Republicans of \u201cco-signing\u201d on Kennedy\u2019s \u201cidiotic, bigoted language.\u201d Plaskett even implied that Kennedy willfully harmed the black community by fostering vaccine hesitancy \u2014 all without giving him a chance to respond.&nbsp; As if her messaging wasn\u2019t clear enough, she called on her colleagues to \u201cbe better than the witnesses,\u201d who also included&nbsp;<em>Breitbart<\/em>&nbsp;journalist Emma-Jo Morris, co-author of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/author\/emma-jo-morris\/\">Hunter Biden laptop story<\/a>, and Louisiana special assistant attorney general D. John Sauer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democratic characterization of RFK Jr. stood in stark contrast to how the presidential candidate portrayed himself during the hearing \u2014 in part because he was given little chance to speak. While he may be prone to outlandish claims, Kennedy is no&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thespectator.com\/tag\/donald-trump\">Trump<\/a>&nbsp;when it comes to temperament: he didn\u2019t throw insults during the hearing, nor has he taken to Twitter to decry it as \u201cfake news.\u201d In a rather un-Trumpian opening statement, Kennedy denounced toxic polarization and insisted that Americans need to start treating each other with kindness and respect. \u201cWe have to stop trying to destroy each other, to marginalize, to vilify, to gaslight each other,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to find that place inside ourselves of light, of empathy, of compassion.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it didn\u2019t matter. As soon as the hearing started, House Democrats attempted to censor Kennedy. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz immediately motioned to move to a closed-door session, claiming that Kennedy\u2019s \u201cdespicable antisemitic and anti-Asian comments\u201d violated a House rule to defame and degrade. The motion to prevent Kennedy from testifying failed, but not before several Democrats voted no to Kennedy\u2019s \u201chate speech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Schultz was referring to Kennedy\u2019s comments that Covid may have been \u201cethnically targeted\u201d because those who are most immune to Covid appear to be Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people. Earlier this week, Democrats had already sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan asking him to disinvite Kennedy from the hearing due to the remarks. It seems their stunt to publicly oust Kennedy had been planned for a few days.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Towards the end of the hearing, Representative Gerry Connelly delivered the final crushing blow to Kennedy. \u201cYou are here for cynical reasons to be used politically by that side of the aisle to embarrass the current president of the United States. You are an enabler in that effort today. It brings shame to a storied name that I revere,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite Democratic consensus about Kennedy\u2019s future in the party, it\u2019s unclear whether he received the message. Even as he expressed his frustration with fellow Democrats during the hearing, Kennedy maintained his loyalty. \u201cI\u2019ve spent my life at this party. I\u2019ve devoted my life to the values of this party. This \u2014 102 people signed this. This itself is evidence of the problem that this hearing was convened to address,\u201d Kennedy said, referring to the letter signed by House Democrats. \u201cThis is an attempt to censor a censorship hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Original Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/thespectator.com\/topic\/rfk-democratic-party-hearing-censorship\/\">https:\/\/thespectator.com\/topic\/rfk-democratic-party-hearing-censorship\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday\u2019s explosive congressional Weaponization subcommittee hearing didn\u2019t uncover any new evidence on government censorship, but it did serve as an unofficial excommunication of Robert F. Kennedy&nbsp;Jr. from the Democratic Party.&nbsp; During the House Judiciary Committee\u2019s three-hour hearing, Kennedy was relentlessly characterized by Democrats as a racist bigot spewing misinformation and hate. He was repeatedly denied the opportunity to respond to accusations or even answer questions by members of his own party who no longer claim him.&nbsp; For House Democrats, it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democrats"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4491,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489\/revisions\/4491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}