NewsNation’s 90-minute town hall broadcast live from Chicago Wednesday with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was an intellectually stimulating and emotionally moving event. Despite the hour of mostly put downs that preceded it (hosted by Chris Cuomo with featured guest Bill O’Reilly) and the half hour of analysis that followed it (Chris Cuomo again with a panel that included Former Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker – the most fair and objective),
Kennedy more than met the challenging questions presented to him by town hall host Elizabeth Vargas and a number of pre-selected Democrat and Independent voters in Chicago, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
[ZH: Early on he addressed the small elephant in the room - explaining how he came to have a raspy voice, noting a neurological disease in his 40s.]
Even when, near the end, Kennedy countered a particularly obnoxious and challenging gay voter from South Carolina who attempted to get him off stride and sandbag him with a snide accusation, Kennedy pledged his lifelong support of LGBTQ rights (which he described as “LGBQT”) I could sympathize with what Kennedy was trying to do – in essence, to reach out in the darkness. Too bad that he wasn’t asked about his feelings about the current move to give special rights to transgender people, as in allowing them to participate in sporting events with people of the opposite biological sex.
The issues at hand were much larger and more significant as the hour-and-a-half provided Kennedy with time to expand on the points that he’s made in his half dozen live interviews on FOX News since he declared for president two months ago. Thus far, to my knowledge, he has not been invited to appear on CNN or MSNBC.
As in the FOX interviews, Kennedy revealed himself to be a thoughtful, sincere, and passionate man of significant achievement – who himself, as he confided, had endured a 14-year long addiction which he overcame four decades ago. His accomplishments since then have been hardly insubstantial.
After the debate, a complete transcript was not available – only selected excerpts provided to journalists by NewsNation.
An article at the channel’s Web site (one of a number) reported the highlights.
In order to win the nomination, Kennedy will have to do something no primary challenger has done in modern U.S. history — unseat an incumbent president for their party’s nomination. Right out of the gate, Kennedy declined to take the bait and attack his potential opponents.
“You won’t hear me saying bad things about President Biden,” Kennedy said.
“I’m not going to attack him as a man.” Instead, Kennedy said he is focused on policy disagreements, such as his differing views on war, censorship and COVID lockdowns.
Kennedy’s comments and particularly his answers to questions seemed incredibly honest and thoughtful – which took some getting used to since this is hardly the domain of almost all major politicians today. For example:
Kennedy said he’ll wait to see if the person who emerges from his party is “living up to Democratic values.” Those values, as he described them, include fighting for the middle class, protecting civil liberties and embracing debate. “We need to figure out a way to start talking to each other and start healing each other,” Kennedy said.
“This polarization is more dangerous” than at any time since the Civil War, he added.
Regarding Ukraine (again, almost channeling his late father in 1968 during the height of the Vietnam War),
Kennedy said (to paraphrase) that in ten years history will show that our country’s course in encouraging the prolongation of the war in Ukraine would be seen as a failure.
