Robert F Kennedy Jr, President Trump’s pick to be the next US Health Secretary, hit back at claims about previous his comments on the Covid pandemic during a torrid Senate confirmation hearing.
The former Democrat turned Trump ally was quizzed by Sen Michael Bennet of Colorado over allegations that he made antisemitic remarks about the disease when he was a presidential candidate.
A video shared by the New York Post in 2023 showed the nominee, know by his nickname RFK, discussing “bioweapons” at a Q&A following a private dinner.
During the conversation, he talked about the use of “ethnically targeted microbes” which he implied were being developed artificially by both the US and China.
He then said: “In fact, there is an argument that Covid-19 is ethnically targeted. Covid-19 attacks certain races disproportionately.
"Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese [people]. We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted like that or not…we do know that the Chinese are spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing ethnic bioweapons.”
The clip sparked accusations of antisemitism from Jewish groups, who alleged that RFK had suggested that coronavirus may have been deliberately designed imapact Jewish people less severely.
And at his confirmation hearing this week, he was again pressed on the meaning of those comments during a fiery exchange with Sen Bennet.
The Coloradan lawmaker demanded to know: “Did you say that Covid-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon that targets black and white people and spares Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people?”
In response, RFK insisted he had never said the disease was “deliberately targeted” and was simply quoting an “NIH-funded and NIH-published study”, reffering to the National Insitutes of Health.
Pushed again on the suggestion that Covid may have “targeted” certain ethnicities, he repeated that he was quoting the NIH’s work.
It is not clear which study he was referring to at the time.
Meanwhile, later on in the hearing, RFK was questioned on his various claims about the efficacy of vaccinations.
One exchange saw Vermont Sen Bernie Sanders produce images of baby onesies sold by Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit RFK previously chaired, bearing slogans like “Unvaxxed, Unafraid” and “No Vax, No Problem”.
In response, RFK said that he had “no power” over the organisation following his resignation from the board in 2023 and that he is “supportive of vaccines”
