Fresh off of an endorsement from a cofounder of Twitter, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to join the platform’s current owner, Elon Musk, in a Twitter talk Monday. The conversation—which is titled “Reclaiming Democracy” and scheduled for 2 p.m. Eastern Time—will be aired on Twitter Spaces, an audio-only live streaming product that failed spectacularly last month when Governor Ron DeSantis used it to announce his presidential bid (after nearly 30 minutes of technical glitches).
Technical issues notwithstanding, Kennedy—who stands among the most influential anti-vaxxers in the US—appears to have found a fitting venue and host. Musk, who acquired Twitter in October, has used the platform to question vaccines and praise anti-vax protesters. He has called the mass rollout of COVID-19 vaccines “potentially worse…than the disease”; pushed for the prosecution of former NIAID director Anthony Fauci; and taken personal shots at Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, a top target for anti-vaxxers. Likewise, Kennedy, the son of former attorney general Bobby Kennedy and nephew of John F. Kennedy, has accused Fauci of using the pandemic to orchestrate a “coup d’état against Western democracy,” alleging that he and Gates sought to prolong the pandemic to pad the bank accounts of the “powerful vaccine cartel.”
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Suffice to say, Kennedy’s crackpot claims are of no concern to Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, who endorsed the presidential hopeful in a Sunday tweet; if nominated in the Democratic primary, the political heir “can and will” defeat DeSantis or Donald Trump in a general election matchup, Dorsey argued.
However, that endorsement likely has more to do with Kennedy’s views on cryptocurrencies than his stance on vaccines. He has hailed digital currencies as an “innovation engine” and a populist bulwark against centralized financial power. (Crypto appears to be a common thread between both of Musk’s presidential guests: During his own Twitter Space, DeSantis vowed to defend Bitcoin against Washington officials supposedly intent on killing it because “they want to have control over society.”) Despite making his name as an environmental lawyer, Kennedy has also criticized the Biden administration’s proposed climate tax on crypto mining, an energy-demanding process that leads to massive amounts of carbon emissions. All of these stances are no doubt attractive to Dorsey, whose current main venture, Block Inc, has invested heavily in Bitcoin.
Previously, Kennedy’s outlandish views put him in hot water with Big Tech. Back in February 2021, his Instagram account was indefinitely suspended for repeatedly sharing false claims about COVID-19. His official White House bid, however, appears to have changed that: “As he is now an active candidate for president of the United States, we have restored access to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Instagram account,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told The Washington Post in a statement.
While Kennedy’s anti-vax rhetoric might win him favor on the right, the candidate has also managed to find a foothold among some Democratic voters: In a recent CNN survey, 20% of Democratic respondents said they were supporting Kennedy, and another 44% said they would consider supporting him, with many citing his last name as the primary reason.