RFK Jr. says CNN cut interview to make him ‘look crazy to liberals’
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. knocked CNN on Tuesday for the way it framed comments he made on the network’s air about the “threat” he said both President Biden and former President Trump pose to the country.
During an interview that aired on Erin Burnett’s program Monday, Kennedy said he could “make an argument” that Biden is worse than Trump.
“President Biden is a much worse threat to democracy,” Kennedy said. “And the reasons for that is President Biden is the first candidate in history — the first president in history that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech.”
The candidate’s comments were widely circulated across cable news and on social media, drawing some criticism.
Appearing on Chris Cuomo’s prime-time NewsNation show on Tuesday night, Kennedy attempted to clarify his remarks.
“What I said was that I can make this argument, and I didn’t say definitively whether I believed one or the other was more dangerous to democracy,” he said. “I did say that I don’t believe either of them are gonna destroy democracy.”
Kennedy went on to criticize CNN for how it framed his comments in an online story accompanying the interview.
“I’m very grateful, by the way, to Erin Burnett. As you know, CNN has not let me on for a live interview in a decade. And she did that — she was very, very courageous. She gave me a very fair interview; I was really dumbfounded about how fair it was. She pushed back on me a lot, and she doesn’t agree with me obviously on stuff, but she actually let me speak, which was — I’m grateful for it,” he continued. “When CNN Digital got it, they cut my quote so it looked like I was making this definitive statement that Biden was more of a threat to democracy than Trump. But of course, I never said that. But that’s the way it made me look crazy to liberals.”
Kennedy’s comments were first highlighted by Mediaite.
Kennedy is not considered in contention to win any states in this fall’s presidential election, but Democrats have said they fear the independent could peel votes away from Biden in key states and make a Trump victory in November more likely.
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