KENNEDY: Are you saying that most Americans do not believe President Kennedy's assassination was a conspiracy?
Q: I want to know why you believe it?
KENNEDY: I don't think anybody who has looked at my uncle's murder seriously believes that the Warren Commission was correct. The C.I.A. was involved--not only in the original conspiracy but in the 60-year coverup--and continues to maintain the coverup.
Q: What was the C.I.A.'s motivation?
KENNEDY: They were angry at my uncle. Their initial anger came when he failed to invade the Bay of Pigs and provide air cover for [Cuban opponents of Fidel Castro], which they consider a betrayal. [The CIA] had trained those men.
KENNEDY: I'm trying to unite the country. I'm not going to pick out people and say that they're evil, they should be cancelled, or whatever. I'm a Democrat. I know what my values are. I've always spoken to Republicans my entire life. During all the years that I was a leader of the environmental movement, I was the only environmentalist who regularly went on Fox News. I think the kind of tribalism that [the media] is advocating is poisonous to our country. I think it's toxic. It's created a polarization, a division, in this country that is more dangerous than at any time since the American Civil War.
Q: Isn't there a difference between disagreement and--
KENNEDY: I believe in the same America that my father and my uncle believed in--I don't care if they're Republican or independent, or what they are.
KENNEDY: I'm something old. I'm a Kennedy Democrat. I believe in labor unions. I believe in a strong, robust middle class. I believe in racial justice, in policies that are going to actually help the lowest people on the totem pole.
Q: I don't think Joe Biden would disagree with any of that.
KENNEDY: Then why did he do the lockdowns? Lockdowns robbed $4 trillion from the middle class and the poor in this country and transferred it to the super rich. We created 500 new billionaires--a billionaire a day, every day.
Q: Do you think politicians did lockdowns, in order to enrich billionaires? That was the goal?
KENNEDY: If they cared about the middle class, they wouldn't have done it. They wouldn't have shut down 3.3 million businesses without due process.
[New Yorker Fact-check: The $4 trillion figure was likely an estimate for the price of the federal bailout. Many of the 500 billionaires rose up in other countries, especially China.]
KENNEDY: I'm not going to pick out people and say that they're evil, they should be cancelled, or whatever. I know what my values are. I believe in the same America that my father and my uncle believed in: an America without censorship; an America that fights for our Constitution; an America that is a moral authority around the world, that projects economic power around the globe rather than military violence--if I can get people to support that, I don't care if they're Republican or independent, or what they are.
Q: Somebody like Alex Jones has nice things to say to you; do you say, "Alex Jones, I don't want your support"?
KENNEDY: I'm not a cancel-culture guy.
Q: That's not cancel culture. That's a principled insistence that he's a bridge too far.
KENNEDY: That's not consistent with my political philosophy.
KENNEDY: Number 1, the policies on the war. I think it's very clear that this has little to do with protecting the Ukraine. It's more to do with the neocon ambition of deposing Vladimir Putin, which I think is very problematic. It's clear from Pres. Biden's direct statements that that is why he believes we should be in Ukraine.
Q: So, would you withdraw military aid to Ukraine?
KENNEDY: I would end the war. I would negotiate a peace.
Q: Would you allow a peace that allowed much of eastern Ukraine and Crimea to remain in Russian hands?
KENNEDY: The Russians had come to two different peace agreements, both of which were eminently reasonable. I consider the terms of the Minsk Accords fair. And that's what Russia already offered to sign.
[OTI FactCheck: The Minsk Accords would grant Donbas self-determination on independence from Ukraine, and would leave Crimea annexed to Russia].
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The above quotations are from Columns and news articles in The New Yorker.
Click here for other excerpts from Columns and news articles in The New Yorker. Click here for other excerpts by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. Click here for a profile of Robert F. Kennedy Jr..
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