Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s presidential marketing campaign on Thursday terminated a contract with a vendor it blamed for sending a fundraising e mail that referred to individuals dealing with costs for the Jan. 6 rebellion as “activists” who have been “stripped of their constitutional liberties.”
The language within the e mail echoed former President Donald Trump, who has labored to rewrite the historical past of the hassle to disrupt the violent assault on the Capitol as lawmakers ready to certify President Joe Biden ‘s 2020 victory. Trump has vowed to pardon the rioters and made the assault a cornerstone of his marketing campaign.
“That assertion was an error that doesn’t replicate Mr. Kennedy’s views,” Kennedy spokesperson Stefanie Spear stated in a press release. “It was inserted by a brand new advertising contractor and slipped by way of the traditional approval course of. The marketing campaign has terminated its contract with this vendor.”
The marketing campaign declined to launch the identify of the contractor.
The fundraising pitch was despatched Thursday with the topic “We Should Free Assange!” It referred to as for the discharge of the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, because the U.S. seeks extradition on costs associated to his group’s publication of an enormous trove of labeled paperwork. He has been in custody in a high-security London jail since 2019, and beforehand spent seven years in self-exile within the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
A British court docket dominated final week that Assange can’t be extradited until the U.S. gives stronger assurances that he gained’t face the demise penalty.
“The Brits wish to be sure that our authorities doesn’t kill Assange,” Kennedy’s fundraising e mail stated. “That is the fact that each American Citizen faces – from Ed Snowden, to Julian Assange to the J6 activists sitting in a Washington DC jail cell stripped of their Constitutional liberties.”
Kennedy enraged Democrats this week when he argued that Biden is a much bigger risk to democracy than Trump, once more echoing a Trump marketing campaign narrative.
“I could make the argument that President Biden is the a lot worse risk to democracy, and the explanation for that’s President Biden is the primary candidate in historical past – the primary president in historical past that has used the federal companies to censor political speech, so to censor his opponent,” Kennedy stated in a CNN interview.
Kennedy is looking for poll entry for his impartial presidential marketing campaign, hoping his well-known final identify and anti-establishment views might assist him overcome the exceedingly lengthy odds towards third-party presidential candidates. He’s constructed a fierce following amongst People who really feel unheard by the 2 main events. His candidacy has fearful each Biden and Trump boosters amid uncertainty about how he might have an effect on the race.
Thus far, solely Utah has formally acknowledged Kennedy’s place on the poll. He says he’s collected sufficient signatures to qualify in a number of different states, together with the swing states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina, however that has not been confirmed by elections officers.
