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Multiple mainstream <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">media outlets</a> rushed to "fact-check" Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. after he shared his opinion that President Biden is a "much worse" threat to democracy than former President Trump.Kennedy was bludgeoned for his comment, including by The Washington Post’s Philip Bump and CNN’s Daniel Dale, both of whom accused the presidential candidate of spreading "misinformation" and implicating Biden in actions taken by his administration that he wasn’t explicitly involved in.Other prominent pundits, like the co-hosts of ABC’s "The View" and CNN host Dana Bash, ripped Kennedy Jr. for the claim as well.<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rfk-jr-says-he-meets-ballot-threshold-another-state" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RFK JR SAYS HE MEETS BALLOT THRESHOLD IN ANOTHER KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE</a>"I can make the argument that <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rfk-jr-says-biden-much-worse-threat-to-democracy-than-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Biden is a much worse threat to democracy</a>. And the reason 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 or censor his opponent," Kennedy told CNN host Erin Burnett on Monday. ""The greatest threat to democracy is not somebody who questions election returns but a President of the United States who will use the power of his office to force the social media companies Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, to open a portal and give access to that portal to the FBI, CIA, the IRS, the NIH, to censor his political critics," he added.He also accused Biden of "weaponizing" the U.S. Secret Service against him by denying him protection.Kennedy did admit to the CNN host that Trump’s behavior in "trying to overthrow" the 2020 election is a "threat to democracy," but maintained that Biden’s behavior has been worse.Shortly after Kennedy's appearance on Burnett's show, CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale was brought on to fact-check Kennedy's comments. "First of all, there is no evidence that President Biden has been at all personally involved in decisions about who should and should not get Secret Service protection," Dale said. <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/libertarian-party-chair-rfk-jr-nomination-mutually-beneficial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LIBERTARIAN PARTY CHAIR SAYS RFK JR. NOMINATION COULD BE ‘MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL’</a>He continued, "Secondly, I think it’s important to note that there are federal criteria for who gets said protection, including such things as being the nominee of a major party, which Mr. Kennedy is not, being at 15% or higher consistently for a month in the Real Clear Politics polling average, which Mr. Kennedy currently is not."Dale added how the secretary of Homeland Security "can decide to offer" protection but hasn’t.He then went after the censorship claims, stating, "We know there is a controversy about a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-to-hear-arguments-in-key-first-amendment-case-challenging-biden-admin-teamwork-with-big-tech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">White House communications with social media companies</a> about what posts and accounts should remain up or not. There is no evidence that Biden has been involved whatsoever."Washington Post columnist <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/02/rfk-jr-biden-trump-threat/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Philip Bump</a> went after Kennedy in an analysis piece titled, "Misinformation-spouting RFK Jr. muses that Biden is threat to democracy.""Everything Kennedy said in the quotes above is false or misleading," Bump wrote, referencing the candidate’s saying Biden is "much worse" than Trump.Bump said Kennedy's claims of censorship weren't true because, while the Biden White House emailed X, formerly known as Twitter, "WONDERING IF WE CAN GET MOVING ON THE PROCESS FOR HAVING IT REMOVED ASAP," for one of Kennedy's tweets, it was not ultimately taken down.On Tuesday, CNN anchor Dana Bash gave what she called an "important fact-check" to his claims."Now, let‘s just be very clear. This is an important fact check. Joe Biden wasn‘t setting out to censor Kennedy‘s speech or his political critics. His administration was encouraging social media sites to monitor and take down false information about the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s no evidence that Biden himself was involved," she said. The hosts of ABC’s "The View" trashed Kennedy’s claims on Tuesday and deemed him a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/joy-behar-sounds-off-rfk-jr-says-hes-dangerous-threat-president-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"threat" to Biden's re-election campaign</a>. "Meanwhile, he is a conspiracy theorist, anti-science. His whole family is voting for Biden and this type of dangerous rhetoric that Biden is a bigger threat to democracy than the man who wanted to throw over the government, overthrow the government," co-host Joy Behar said. Co-host Sara Haines agreed, adding that Kennedy Jr. was "wrong in what he was saying," and noting, "President Biden is not responsible for private social media companies. The First Amendment is for the government, it does not apply, necessarily, to private companies who decide to ban you."Behar followed up by calling the Independent candidate a "liar."Kennedy doubled down on his views during an interview with "<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/rfk-jr-doubles-down-warning-biden-much-worse-trump-genuine-threat-democracy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox &amp; Friends</a>" on Tuesday. "If you have a president who can censor his political opponents, he has the license for any kind of atrocity, that is a genuine threat to our democracy," he said. "What Trump said about… questioning the election and… to the extent that he engaged… in an effort to overthrow that, of course, that's a threat to democracy, but it is not the worst threat undermining the First Amendment of our Constitution and then weaponizing the federal agencies, to get his opponents off the ballot."

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--- !ruby/object:Feedjira::Parser::RSSEntry
published: 2024-04-03 09:00:31.000000000 Z
carlessian_info:
 news_filer_version: 2
 newspaper: US - Fox News
 macro_region: USA
entry_id: !ruby/object:Feedjira::Parser::GloballyUniqueIdentifier
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 guid: https://www.foxnews.com/media/rfk-jr-gets-mobbed-media-fact-checkers-saying-biden-worse-democracy-trump-everything-misleading
title: RFK Jr. gets mobbed by media fact-checkers for saying Biden is 'much worse'
 for democracy than Trump
categories:
- 1949dae7-06d2-5fd6-9786-d86528ecac32
- fnc
- Fox News
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- fox-news/politics/elections/presidential
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content: Multiple mainstream <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media" target="_blank"
 rel="noopener">media outlets</a> rushed to "fact-check" Independent presidential
 candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. after he shared his opinion that President Biden
 is a "much worse" threat to democracy than former President Trump.Kennedy
 was bludgeoned for his comment, including by The Washington Post’s Philip Bump and
 CNN’s Daniel Dale, both of whom accused the presidential candidate of spreading
 "misinformation" and implicating Biden in actions taken by his administration that
 he wasn’t explicitly involved in.Other prominent pundits, like the co-hosts
 of ABC’s "The View" and CNN host Dana Bash, ripped Kennedy Jr. for the claim as
 well.<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rfk-jr-says-he-meets-ballot-threshold-another-state"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener">RFK JR SAYS HE MEETS BALLOT THRESHOLD
 IN ANOTHER KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE</a>"I can make the argument
 that <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rfk-jr-says-biden-much-worse-threat-to-democracy-than-trump"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Biden is a much worse threat to democracy</a>.
 And the reason 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 or censor his opponent," Kennedy told CNN host Erin Burnett on Monday. ""The
 greatest threat to democracy is not somebody who questions election returns but
 a President of the United States who will use the power of his office to force the
 social media companies Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, to open a portal and give access
 to that portal to the FBI, CIA, the IRS, the NIH, to censor his political critics,"
 he added.He also accused Biden of "weaponizing" the U.S. Secret Service against
 him by denying him protection.Kennedy did admit to the CNN host that Trump’s
 behavior in "trying to overthrow" the 2020 election is a "threat to democracy,"
 but maintained that Biden’s behavior has been worse.Shortly after Kennedy's
 appearance on Burnett's show, CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale was brought on to fact-check
 Kennedy's comments. "First of all, there is no evidence that President Biden
 has been at all personally involved in decisions about who should and should not
 get Secret Service protection," Dale said. <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/libertarian-party-chair-rfk-jr-nomination-mutually-beneficial"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener">LIBERTARIAN PARTY CHAIR SAYS RFK JR. NOMINATION
 COULD BE ‘MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL’</a>He continued, "Secondly, I
 think it’s important to note that there are federal criteria for who gets said protection,
 including such things as being the nominee of a major party, which Mr. Kennedy is
 not, being at 15% or higher consistently for a month in the Real Clear Politics
 polling average, which Mr. Kennedy currently is not."Dale added how the secretary
 of Homeland Security "can decide to offer" protection but hasn’t.He then
 went after the censorship claims, stating, "We know there is a controversy about
 a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-to-hear-arguments-in-key-first-amendment-case-challenging-biden-admin-teamwork-with-big-tech"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener">White House communications with social media companies</a>
 about what posts and accounts should remain up or not. There is no evidence that
 Biden has been involved whatsoever."Washington Post columnist <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/02/rfk-jr-biden-trump-threat/"
 target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Philip Bump</a> went after Kennedy in an
 analysis piece titled, "Misinformation-spouting RFK Jr. muses that Biden is threat
 to democracy.""Everything Kennedy said in the quotes above is false or misleading,"
 Bump wrote, referencing the candidate’s saying Biden is "much worse" than Trump.Bump
 said Kennedy's claims of censorship weren't true because, while the Biden White
 House emailed X, formerly known as Twitter, "WONDERING IF WE CAN GET MOVING ON THE
 PROCESS FOR HAVING IT REMOVED ASAP," for one of Kennedy's tweets, it was not ultimately
 taken down.On Tuesday, CNN anchor Dana Bash gave what she called an "important
 fact-check" to his claims."Now, let‘s just be very clear. This is an important
 fact check. Joe Biden wasn‘t setting out to censor Kennedy‘s speech or his political
 critics. His administration was encouraging social media sites to monitor and take
 down false information about the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s no evidence that Biden
 himself was involved," she said. The hosts of ABC’s "The View" trashed Kennedy’s
 claims on Tuesday and deemed him a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/joy-behar-sounds-off-rfk-jr-says-hes-dangerous-threat-president-biden"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener">"threat" to Biden's re-election campaign</a>. "Meanwhile,
 he is a conspiracy theorist, anti-science. His whole family is voting for Biden
 and this type of dangerous rhetoric that Biden is a bigger threat to democracy than
 the man who wanted to throw over the government, overthrow the government," co-host
 Joy Behar said. Co-host Sara Haines agreed, adding that Kennedy Jr. was "wrong
 in what he was saying," and noting, "President Biden is not responsible for private
 social media companies. The First Amendment is for the government, it does not apply,
 necessarily, to private companies who decide to ban you."Behar followed up
 by calling the Independent candidate a "liar."Kennedy doubled down on his
 views during an interview with "<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/rfk-jr-doubles-down-warning-biden-much-worse-trump-genuine-threat-democracy"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox &amp; Friends</a>" on Tuesday. "If you
 have a president who can censor his political opponents, he has the license for
 any kind of atrocity, that is a genuine threat to our democracy," he said. "What
 Trump said about… questioning the election and… to the extent that he engaged… in
 an effort to overthrow that, of course, that's a threat to democracy, but it is
 not the worst threat undermining the First Amendment of our Constitution and then
 weaponizing the federal agencies, to get his opponents off the ballot." 
summary: Media outlets moved to fact-check presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy,
 Jr. for claiming President Biden is a &quot;much worse&quot; threat to democracy
 than former President Trump.
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url: https://www.foxnews.com/media/rfk-jr-gets-mobbed-media-fact-checkers-saying-biden-worse-democracy-trump-everything-misleading
image: https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/03/931/523/GettyImages-2020977324.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

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