RFK Jr. , the Foe of Covid Lockdowns, Wants to Lock Out “Economic Migrants” – By Ed Rampell (Counterpunch) / Aug 11, 2023
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son/nephew of a political dynasty and current candidate for president running in the Democratic Party primaries, is widely portrayed by the corporate press as a kooky conspiracy theorist. But he has scored as high as 20% in the polls. Is Bobby Jr. being accurately represented or a serious competitor to Joe Biden for the Democrats’ nomination, who is being maligned and misrepresented? To find out for myself, I attended a press conference/campaign rally for the presidential contender on August 3 at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills.
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The almost two-hour event focused on one topic: The so-called border crisis, which, if he’s elected president, Kennedy Jr. promised “will be one of my highest priorities.” The 874-seat Saban Theatre is only 4.4 miles from where the candidate’s father, RFK Sr., was shot at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel 55 years ago, as Bob Jimenez, who introduced RFK Jr. referenced, identifying himself as an eyewitness of the assassination, plus as a 78-year-old Latino Vietnam War veteran and former NBC correspondent. (Rather despicably, Bobby Jr. himself has been denied Secret Service protection during his race for the presidency; members of the press were subjected to metal detectors and bag checks before gaining admittance into the Saban.) But before Kennedy Jr. addressed his enthusiastic supporters sitting in the front of the Saban with news media relegated to the theater’s rear, the 19-minute film Midnight at the Border was screened.
In this short the presidential aspirant seems to be (literally) following in the footsteps of his father, who made well-documented trips as a U.S. Senator. In February 1968, a month prior to tossing his hat into the ring, RFK Sr. made a two-day trip to one of America’s poorest pockets located in Eastern Kentucky, which had 20 of the nation’s 30 poorest counties.
