(NewsNation) — Polarization is coming from Americans’ “decline in faith” in the government and media, Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a recent interview with NewsNation local affiliate WVNY.
“People are now turning to other sources for information because they can’t trust the official sources,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy is the son of former U.S. Sen. and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 while running his own presidential campaign.
“My father, when he ran in 1968, he told people truths that they didn’t want to hear,” Kennedy said. “Because of that, he was able to unite Americans in a populist movement. “
Added Kennedy: “He did that just by pledging to tell the truth. And that’s what I’m going to do on my campaign.”
Although he spoke of uniting the country, Kennedy has been a controversial figure because of his criticism of vaccines. According to WVNY, Instagram blocked Kennedy’s account in February 2021 for “repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines,” although it was reinstated earlier this month.
On Monday, YouTube said it removed a video of an interview between Kennedy and commentator Jordan Peterson for violating its guidelines against vaccine misinformation, NewsNation local affiliate The Hill reported.
“We removed a video from the Jordan Peterson channel for violating YouTube’s general vaccine misinformation policy, which prohibits content that alleges that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities,” a YouTube spokesperson said to The Hill in a statement.
According to the video-sharing platform, “YouTube doesn’t allow content that poses a serious risk of egregious harm by spreading medical misinformation about currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and by the World Health Organization (WHO). “
But Kennedy pushed back at the idea that what he’s saying isn’t true.
“My information is branded misinformation, because it departs from government orthodoxies,” Kennedy told WVNY.
And even if it wasn’t, he went on, “incorrect speech is protected by the Constitution.”
“It doesn’t matter whether even if I said something that was incorrect,” Kennedy said. “It shouldn’t be censored.”
Kennedy is set to participate in a town hall exclusively on NewsNation. He will take questions from a live audience in a forum moderated by NewsNation anchor Elizabeth Vargas at 9 p.m. June 28 in NewsNation’s Chicago studios.
Questions can also be submitted online here.