House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) amplified a conspiracy theory peddled by anti-vaccine conspiracist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday, claiming the longshot Democratic presidential candidate was “just pointing out facts” when he tied baseball legend Hank Aaron’s death to the COVID-19 vaccine.
During yet another one of Jordan’s hearings on the “weaponization” of the federal government, the Ohio Republican defended the bogus claim while complaining that Kennedy’s Jan. 2021 tweet was flagged as “misinformation” by the White House.
“Misinformation is when you don’t have the facts right,” Jordan exclaimed. “But when you look at Mr. Kennedy’s tweet, there was nothing in there that was factually inaccurate. Hank Aaron, real person, great American, passed away after he got the vaccine. Pointing out, just pointing out facts.”
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At the time of the Hall of Famer’s death, Kennedy said it was “part of a wave of suspicious deaths among elderly closely following administration of COVID vaccines,” adding that the Atlanta Braves legend had “received the Moderna vaccine on Jan. 5 to inspire other Black Americans to get the vaccine.”
Despite Jordan’s claims that Kennedy was merely “pointing out facts,” his suggestion that Aaron died from the vaccine has been disproven over and over again. In fact, the medical examiner’s office that examined Aaron’s body said the 86-year-old died of natural causes.
Jordan went on to imply that President Joe Biden was already worried that Kennedy would be a potential primary threat just days after officially taking office, prompting his administration to contact Twitter about Kennedy’s tweet—which is still up, by the way.
“And yet the White House on the third day, actually 1:04 AM on January 23, 2021, 37 hours into the administration, they were trying to censor Mr. Kennedy. I find that interesting,” the GOP lawmaker declared. “The irony here at trying to censor the guy who’s actually their Democrat primary opponent. Go figure.”
Days before Thursday’s hearing, Kennedy sparked intense backlash when he peddled an outrageous conspiracy that COVID-19 was an “ethnically targeted” bioweapon designed to attack Caucasians and Black people but spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese. Since then, the White House has denounced his theory as “false” and “vile,” and even some of his own famous family members have come out against him.
Additionally, while Kennedy’s campaign has been boosted by right-wing media and Republicans, Democratic voters have increasingly grown sour on him as his controversial views have drawn more attention. A recent poll finds that only 9 percent of Democratic voters in the early primary state of New Hampshire hold a favorable view of the anti-vaccine activist, while 69 percent disapprove of him.
