(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Maverick Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was set to testify to the House Weaponization Subcommittee on Thursday about how the federal government colluded with Big Tech firms to censor true information about COVID-19 and other matters.
However, Democrats moved to block Kennedy from participating in the hearing on the grounds that he’s spread “hate speech” and “conspiracy theories.” Republicans defeated this attempt in a vote of 10-8.
The Democrats’ move to censor a challenger to their party leader began with the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, blasting Kennedy for his recent remarks that “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people” and that “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
“Even knowing what they know about Mr. Kennedy’s hateful and evidence-free rhetoric … [Republicans] affirmatively chose to give him this platform,” Plaskett said. “They intentionally chose to elevate this rhetoric, and give these harmful views a platform in the halls of Congress. They have co-signed on idiotic, bigoted messaging.”
Plaskett then accused Republicans of having Kennedy testify to undermine Joe Biden.
Kennedy then gave his opening statement, imploring Plaskett and the other Democrat committee members to engage with his ideas openly and honestly.
“This kind of division is more dangerous to our country than anytime since the American Civil War. And how do we deal with that? Every Democrat on this committee believes we need to end that polarization. Do you think you can do that by censoring people?” he said.
“I’m telling you that you cannot. We need to start being kind to each other. We need to start being respectful to each other. We need to start restoring the comity to this chamber and the rest of America.”
Kennedy received applause from the gallery when he completed his speech. But Democrats were apparently unmoved, as Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., immediately motioned to move the committee hearing into a closed-door executive session.
Wasserman Schultz argued that Kennedy’s “despicable anti-Semitic and anti-Asian comments” should not be heard in a public forum.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., then moved to table Wasserman Schultz’s motion. Each Republican voted yes, while every Democrat voted no—resulting in a 10-8 vote.
The motion was tabled, and the hearing continued—and was still ongoing as of the publication of this article.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
