CNN anchor Jake Tapper and his panel of guest analysts had a visibly disgusted reaction to Democratic presidential challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s comments that COVID-19 may have been designed to target certain races and not others, calling the very suggestion “bigotry,” “antisemitism” and “deranged lies.”
With a lowered tone, eyes cast downward and his head gently shaking, Tapper broached the topic of Kennedy as a third-party candidate on CNN Monday – then went straight to RFK’s comments as reported in a weekend article in the New York Post.
Tapper suggested that Kennedy is “spreading some really deranged lies about the COVID, that … really walk into anti-Semitism and anti-Asian bigotry.”
Kennedy later denied fully making the connection during a press event at an Upper East Side restaurant that the virus may have been a genetically engineered bioweapon that targets Black and Caucasian people while sparing Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
“We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact,” Kennedy said, according to the Post. “We do know that the Chinese are spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing ethnic bioweapons and we are developing ethnic bioweapons.”
Either way, Tapper said outright that “there is no truth” contained in Kennedy’s comments.
“There are plenty of Ashkenazi Jews and plenty of Chinese and Asian people who died of COVID,” Tapper said. “It’s a deranged argument. But this guy is posing. He’s polling in the double-digits among Democrats.”
Guest analyst Karen Finney, a former campaign adviser to Hillary Clinton, downplayed those polls – then went on the attack:
“I think that is about more about name recognition,” she said. “His own family doesn’t support him. And as you just said, that is a deranged, disgusting thing to say. Let’s just be very clear: It does not represent the values of the Democratic Party.”
Finney suggested that Kennedy’s polling numbers will fall once voters get a chance to hear him talk about his views on vaccines and other controversial views.
“I’m not concerned,” Finney said. “And … the fundraising numbers from the Biden campaign just shot up. The people who have been you know, wringing their hands, we see it every cycle.”
Another panelist said Kennedy’s comments were “nauseating and disgusting and divisive and the Democratic Party has no room for that sort of narrative,” suggesting RFK will not “gain any traction.”
Watch the entire exchange in the video above.
