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RFK Jr - a candidate without a clue - defends wiretapping Martin Luther King Jr on MLK Day weekend [1]

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Date: 2024-01-15  

In an interview with Politico on Sunday, Robert F Kennedy Jr. defended the FBI wiretaps of Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. He, of course, has skin in the game because it was his father, Robert F. Kennedy, who authorized the wiretapping during his uncle, President John F. Kennedy’s administration. Kennedy Jr. told Politico that his family members:

“permitted the eavesdropping because they were “making big bets on King, particularly in organizing the March on Washington.” “They were betting not only the civil rights movement but their own careers. And they knew that Hoover was out to ruin King,” He added: “There was good reason for them doing that at the time, because J. Edgar Hoover was out to destroy Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement and Hoover said to them that Martin Luther King’s chief was a communist.” “My father gave permission to Hoover to wiretap them so he could prove that his suspicions about King were either right or wrong. I think, politically, they had to do it.”

I do not know if RFK Jr.’s interpretation of events is accurate. But even if it is, it is an existentially dumb thing for a politician looking for votes to say — especially if that politician wants to emulate his father’s appeal to Black voters.

An appeal engendered by RFK Sr.’s genuine care for minorities which was enhanced by his extemporaneous and heartfelt speech in Indianapolis on April 4, 1968, announcing the death of King to his rally audience — two months before Sirhan Sirhan gunned him down in an LA hotel kitchen

All RFK had to do was embrace his father’s civil rights positions. However, he felt compelled to excuse what might indeed have been an expedient political act. But in doing so, he drew attention to a possible blot on his father’s record. If he had to address the subject, he should have said something like "none of us are perfect, but let us judge my father with his complete record."

Almost invariably in politics, if you are explaining, you are losing.

RFK Jr. further demonstrated his political incompetence with his decision to campaign in King’s hometown, Atlanta, with Angela Stanton-King (no relation — although she is the goddaughter of King’s niece, Alveda King). Stanton-King now works for Kennedy’s campaign. However, before that, she belonged to the Blacks for Trump movement.

Stanton-King is also the recipient of a Trump pardon. In 2004, she had been convicted on federal conspiracy charges for her role in a car theft ring and served two years.

Further distancing herself from the Black civil rights mainstream, in 2020 she announced a run against Rep. John Lewis, a legendary figure in the Civil Rights movement who had marched with King. (Note: after Lewis’ death she ran against his Democratic successor, Nikema Williams, and lost in a landslide.)

Which part of her resume is attractive to RFK Jr. only he can tell you. But it cannot have hurt that Stanton-King is a QAnon conspiracist. She is also an anti-abortion activist and anti-LGBTQ bigot, who has compared homosexuality to pedophilia.

If I were to adopt a conspiracy theory, it is that RFK Jr. has embraced Max Bialystock’s approach to ‘winning’ as illustrated in Mel Brooks's, ‘ The Producers .’ Although, it is unclear why he would want to doom his candidacy with piss-poor choices. And unlike the ultimately ‘successful’ Bialystock, it is hard to see how RFK Jr’s strategy (if he has one) could lead to a win.

If you watch his father’s speech (above) you have to wonder how we went from that effortless erudition and compassion to the conspiratorial effluvia the son spews.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/15/2217552/-RFK-Jr-a-candidate-without-a-clue-defends-wiretapping-Martin-Luther-King-Jr-on-MLK-Day-weekend?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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