Democrats are trying to drive a wedge between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his running mate over his view about the Jan. 6, 2021, protest.
The Democratic National Committee is running an ad in Nicole Shanahan’s local newspaper, The Mercury Sun, that calls on her to clarify whether she agrees with Mr. Kennedy‘s statement that there is “little evidence of a true insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol.
Fearful that he could pull votes away from President Biden, Democrats are working overtime to take the sheen off Mr. Kennedy‘s independent presidential bid.
They’re highlighting what they see as his political warts, including the comment he made about the pro-Trump protesters who entered the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of what they called a rigged 2020 election.
The newspaper ad depicts Mr. Kennedy wearing a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap in an attempt to cast him as a Trump minion.
Mr. Kennedy this month vowed if elected to appoint a special counsel to investigate how prosecutors handled cases related to the Jan. 6 demonstration.
Such a stand exposes Mr. Kennedy‘s extreme views, according to Democrats.
“RFK Jr. has proven he’s a spoiler for Donald Trump, whether it’s having his candidacy propped up by Trump‘s largest donor or providing cover for Trump by downplaying the seriousness of January 6,” said DNC spokesman Matt Corridoni. “Voters deserve to know if Nicole Shanahan shares RFK Jr.’s belief that the actions taken that day by violent MAGA extremists were not a ‘true insurrection.’”
The Kennedy campaign backpedaled this month after sending out a fundraising email that referred to the Jan. 6 defendants as “activists.” It said they had been “stripped of their constitutional liberties.”
The email called on supporters to sign a petition demanding the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and drew a parallel between the Jan. 6 defendants and Edward Snowden, a former intelligence contractor who is living in exile in Russia after leaking classified documents in 2013 about the U.S. government’s surveillance programs.
The Kennedy campaign said the email was sent out in “error” from a “new marketing contractor.” The RFK team said the fundraising message didn’t reflect the candidate’s views.
Mr. Kennedy, however, stood his ground, saying in a statement he was “concerned about the possibility that political objectives motivated the vigor of the prosecution of the J6 defendants.
“I will appoint a special counsel — an individual respected by all sides — to investigate whether prosecutorial discretion was abused for political ends in this case, and I will right any wrongs that we discover. Without the impartial rule of law, there is no true democracy or moral governance.
“I have not examined the evidence in detail, but reasonable people, including Trump opponents, tell me there is little evidence of a true insurrection. They observe that the protesters carried no weapons, had no plans or ability to seize the reins of government, and that Trump himself had urged them to protest ‘peacefully.’”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.