On Thursday, his disastrous presidential bid ended with claims that those imprisoned for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol were “deprived of their constitutional liberties.” (to the extent possible) was frustrated. ” The campaign quickly clarified that the presentation, which reflected the views of its ostensible opponent Donald Trump, was a fallacy brought about by a “new marketing contractor.”
Kennedy then decided to clarify his position on the Capitol riot. In his statement released Friday afternoon, he asserted that he…generally agrees with the positions of his ostensible opponent, Donald Trump.
“January 6th is one of the most polarizing topics in the political landscape,” the statement begins, itself an exceptional distillation of Kennedy’s approach to a wide range of political issues. What makes the Capitol riot so polarizing is that for Trump and his allies, what happened is that Trump lied about the election results and encouraged people to come to Washington and protest that day. , because it is then very useful to obscure and misguide the supporters. At the Capitol. It’s polarizing, just like vaccination is polarizing. Since there is reality and unreality, and the latter exists primarily as the source of conflict, the two are necessarily in conflict.
“It is clear that many of the protesters on January 6th broke the law in what began as a protest that may have turned into a riot,” Kennedy’s statement said. “Because this happened at President Trump’s encouragement, and because of President Trump’s delusional belief that the election was stolen from him, many view this as an insurrection rather than a riot.”
There is no reason why people would consider it a rebellion. People consider this an insurrection because it was an overt effort to prevent the transition of power from the person who lost the election. This was a largely ad hoc and ultimately unsuccessful effort, but this is not just an applied term. [waves hands] Mr. Trump.
“I have not looked closely at the evidence,” the statement continues, “but reasonable people, including Trump opponents, tell me there is little evidence of a true insurrection. The protesters carry no weapons, have no plans or ability to seize power, and have observed that Trump himself has urged protesters to protest “peacefully.”
This is the absolute best cop out.The man is running for president and claims this about the issue: he himself explains One of the most polarizing figures in politics, he gives us puppy dog eyes and insists he just doesn’t know much about politics.But what is he do He knows that others are telling him that the mainstream consensus is wrong, and that’s all he needs to hear.
What he’s hearing is wrong.
By the standards President Kennedy demanded of a “true insurrection,” there were firearms in the crowd that day. And President Trump reportedly asked the Secret Service to stop using metal detectors in his speech at the Ellipse rally that morning. You’re not here to hurt me. ”
Nor was the crowd trying to “seize the reins of government,” as Kennedy heard. Rather, he was trying to put the reins in President Trump’s hands, albeit temporarily.
President Trump’s “urging” of crowds to be peaceful is alleging that he infuriated them during his speech that morning, that he called for them to engage in “violent” protests in the first place, and that he is anti-government. Its effectiveness is somewhat undermined by the sheer disinterest in voicing opposition to the movement. The violence continued for several hours after it began.
But then I looked at the evidence in detail.
“Like many reasonable Americans, I am concerned about the momentum of the prosecution of the J6 defendants, their long sentences, and the possibility that their harsh treatment was motivated by political objectives,” Kennedy continued. Ta. “It would fit into an alarming pattern of government agencies such as the Department of Justice, IRS, SEC, FBI being weaponized against political opponents.”
Earlier this week, Kennedy claimed that the sitting president could be as big a threat to democracy as Trump because Biden is censoring his political opponents, including Kennedy, a reminder that this is not true. let But government power is typical of what rebels might rebel against, so Kennedy sees it as a natural foil.
“You can disagree with Donald Trump and everything he stands for, as I do,” the statement continued, “and still be upset by the government’s weaponization against him.”
As per Wikipedia, citation required. However, you can see how Kennedy is steeped in pro-Trump positions. Kennedy takes it for granted that Trump suffers not from harsh accountability, but from unfair targeting.
Kennedy is not against everything Trump stands for by any measure. He, like Trump, rejects conventional wisdom (no matter how wise) and authority (no matter how authoritative). They just have different motivations. Trump opportunistically gains confidence in himself by undermining confidence in everything else in his base. Kennedy does it because it’s his job and it’s won him supporters.
The statement concludes with an attempt to once again equate Biden with Trump and place Kennedy somewhere between the two candidates. The problem is that the middle ground between reality and surreality is still surreal.
