As reported Monday by The Washington Examiner, the White House attacked some RFK Jr. statements. Undoubtedly because they preferred to not use actual quotes of what the man said, they manipulated and paraphrased in an effort to score points among those who don't grasp the finer points of evidence-based debate or the English language. As to whether Kennedy was trying to appear anti-Jewish without actually saying anything explicitly anti-Jewish, I have no idea.
It is, however, instructive to examine exactly what was said by the White House press secretary, even though she avoided directly quoting her target. The Examiner article by Christian Datoc made some curious language choices of its own, but let's save that for another day and tackle press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's attempt to nail Kennedy. Here's a direct quote, courtesy of Datoc:
"I think if you look at the last two, three years since 2020, since this pandemic hit, there are countless Americans, American families who are seeing an empty seat at the Thanksgiving table. So the claims made on that tape are false. It is vile, and they put our fellow Americans in danger."
I feel it necessary to point out that this is all paraphrasing and NOT stating what Kennedy actually said, and it's basically a verbal gobbledygook that has no direct application to what Kennedy stated. This mishmash debunks nothing. Here's another Jean-Pierre word salad salvo:
"If you think about the racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories that come out of saying those types of things, it's an attack on our fellow citizens, our fellow Americans, and so it is important that we speak out when we hear those claims."
Note that Jean-Pierre still doesn't quote Kennedy directly, doesn't mention the points he was making, doesn't even try to refute what he said with data or logical argument. This would be a big fat fail in any debate class or civics class or technical writing class. She continues:
"the assertion that COVID was genetically engineered to spare Jewish and Chinese people is offensive, and incredibly dangerous."
Jean-Pierre, who I'm sure is very implication-savvy, throws the word "assertion" at the audience. I think most people have a very loose idea of what "assertion" really means, so of course I looked it up.
Assertion: a confident or forceful statement of fact or belief.
Well, since Kennedy did NOT assert this, I'd have to label Jean-Pierre a pure propagandist here. Kennedy mentions that the argument has been made that COVID was designed to do this, but then immediately states that he does not know whether it was deliberately targeted or not. He uses a weasel technique, passive voice, to bring the idea to mind, but then states that he has no evidence to back up the idea. If you mention something but then undercut it a sentence later, that is NOT making "a confident or forceful statement of fact or belief." In other words, Jean-Pierre is not being truthful in her characterization of what Kennedy said.
Kennedy
Here's what Kennedy actually said:
"COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese."
Followed by:
"We don't know whether it was deliberately targeted or not, but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact."
Now Kennedy isn't blameless here. The phrase "is targeted" can be read as implying agency. But the fact is that Kennedy makes his salient point, namely that certain people are more resistant to COVID-19 than others, which (if false) is what Jean-Pierre should have made clear to the millions listening to her.
But she didn't do that. And you haven't exactly heard the topic explored on CNN or MSNBC, so guess what? I'd bet that Mr. Kennedy has these particular facts pretty much correct. Based on the White House content and style, I've gotta believe Jean-Pierre not refuting these differential COVID-19 effects means she cannot.
Back and Forth
Kennedy tweeted on Saturday that he "never, ever said that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews." He then stated that the US and other countries were indeed developing ethnically targeted bioweapons. Outside of recent James Bond movies, I know nothing about this, but perhaps he does.
Meanwhile, the White House press secretary wrapped up her propaganda spree with:
"Every aspect of these comments reflect some of the most abhorrent antisemitic conspiracy theories throughout history and contributes to today's dangerous rise of antisemitism, and so this is something that, you know, this president and this whole administration is going to stand against."
At no point does she try to refute Kennedy's core argument, namely that some people are provably more immune to COVID-19 than others. Instead we get some flag waving and rhetoric that has not much to do with Kennedy's comments.
Going Forward
I never thought anything could be worse than President Trump's press secretaries. But here we are. Jean-Pierre doesn't even bother to address, argue, or refute the core statements being made by Kennedy. Instead she's off on some oblique God Save the Queen (or maybe the Jews) attack rant. The days of someone saying something factual, and then being refuted, appear to be finished. The factual-ness of what's being said gets drowned out by verbal camouflage and appeals to wokeness.
If the White House designs and promotes this kind of trash propaganda against political rivals, where do we go from here? This kind of thing, I think, is actually worse than hearing blustery "Low Energy Jeb" and "Pocahontas" when Trump was holding forth. At least he helmed his own hatchet speeches.
Bob Dietz
July 17, 2023
