Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that US President Joe Biden was a greater threat to democracy than former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy made the argument during his interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, which was centered around being blocked on social media platforms during the Biden administration, which he labeled as an effort to "censor political speech" and undermine the First Amendment.
"I can make the argument that President Biden is the much worse threat to democracy, and the reason for that is President Biden is the first candidate in history - the first president in history that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech, so to censor his opponent," he said.
It was reported that Kennedy's Instagram account was suspended in 2021 "for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines," only to be reinstated last year shortly after he announced his presidential campaign. Meta, Instagram's parent company, cited his White House bid as the reason for restoring Kennedy's account in a statement.
Kennedy has since named Nicole Shanahan as his running mate after reportedly confessing that she financed the Super Bowl campaign ad released by Kennedy's Super PAC.
In December, the Supreme Court blocked Kennedy from joining a challenge to a case brought by the Missouri and Louisiana's attorneys-general concerning the Biden administration's communication with social media companies about posts the government views as disinformation. Kennedy currently has a similar case pending in a lower court.
Kennedy, who has made freedom of speech issues a central focus of his campaign, testified last year before the House Judiciary's subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government at the invitation of House Republicans to speak as part of their investigation into alleged censorship against conservatives at social media companies.
He further told Burnett that, while he believed Biden and Trump were both ill-suited to be reelected in November, he does not believe the rhetoric suggesting either of them would "destroy democracy."
But if he had to label either one of them as the greater threat to democracy, Kennedy would choose Biden because he believed that the current president has been "weaponizing the federal agencies" against his opponents despite also acknowledging that Trump's attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election was a "[clear] threat to democracy."
In response, the Democratic National Committee responded to Kennedy, a former Democrat prior to his presidential bid, saying in a statement that "there is no comparison" between Biden and Trump.
"With a straight face Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that Joe Biden is a bigger threat to democracy than Donald Trump because he was barred from pushing conspiracy theories online," DNC senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement.
"There is no comparison to summoning a mob to the Capitol and promising to be a dictator on day one. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid to rest tonight any doubts that he's a spoiler candidate by pushing his MAGA [Make America Great Again] talking points in prime time."
Meanwhile, Fox News Digital reported that Trump slammed Kennedy on Truth Social, calling him "the most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far."
Kennedy's presidential bid has reportedly alienated him from the rest of the Kennedy family—who has since displayed their support for Biden's re-election bid—but he also insisted that he still loved them and that some of his relatives were supporting him over Biden.
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