Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blasted MSNBC host Ari Melber on Wednesday, accusing the host of “trying to prop up” unnecessary “vitriol” between him and his fellow candidates, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Melber played for Kennedy a montage of Trump remarks with no context provided for any of them.
The remarks, Melber told Kennedy, “is why people say, how can you say Biden and Trump are similarly catastrophic or ‘both catastrophic'” for America.
(Video: YouTube)
“This is all debating tricks,” Kennedy snapped back before the clip rolled. “You’re lighting fires faster than I can put them out. Every single thing you say, I can answer. Give me a chance to answer.”
Melber promised Kennedy would “get the floor” after he watched the montage.
“I made this for you,” he said.
“People are concerned not that this is Nader 2.0, but that you are using the platform and the following you have to suggest that they are both catastrophic, and they’re similar and that you, they say, are ignoring not only the policy difference, but the actual possible democracy and autocratic threat of Donald Trump if he wins again,” Melber stated.
“I never said that,” Kennedy replied. “Like I said, I think both of them did bad things to our country. I think both of them contributed.”
Speaking of the $34 trillion national debt, the Independent said “neither of them can solve that problem.”
“Let me tell you something else they can’t do,” Kennedy added. “Neither of them can end the vitriol that you are trying to prop up right now.”
“What have I said that’s vitriolic?” Melber asked.
“What you’re saying to me, that I need to take a side and say one person —” Kennedy shot back before Melber cut him off.
“No, I’m asking you about — you’re running for president and it’s a big job and I’m asking you about what people say about that,” he said.
“You told me I would have the floor!” his fuming guest barked.
“We are facing a time in our history that… is more vitriolic, more polarized, more poisonous, at any time since the American Civil War,” Kennedy said, “and it’s all being amplified by the social media algorithms.”
“It’s hard to see a way out of that if somebody doesn’t come along and say, ‘I’m not going to participate that,’ and even if people act crazy on both sides, I’m not going to be part of that craziness,” he vowed. “I’m going to try to talk about the issues that people care about.”
Trump goes scorched earth on RFK Jr. in Truth Social posts: ‘Democrat ‘Plant,’ a Radical Left Liberal’ https://t.co/A4ZDNm7OZ6 via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) April 27, 2024
Melber pressed on.
“You’re not addressing the question I raised,” he said.
“This is when I say you’re feeding into the vitriol,” Kennedy told him. “You’re trying to get me to hate on President Trump.”
When asked about the potential of Jan. 6 pardons, Kennedy called the events at the Capitol “a terrible day.”
“Look, January 6th was a terrible time in our history. A terrible day. People committed terrible crimes,” Kennedy said. “They committed violence against police officers. They broke into the Capitol. They stormed the capitol. They committed other crimes, and a lot of people are in jail and they should be.”
“So I condemn that,” Kennedy said. “But I’m not going to campaign based upon drumming up or amplifying people’s hatred toward each other.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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