The campaign of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is retracting language used in recent fundraising emails that described January 6 defendants as 'activists' who have been 'stripped of their constitutional liberties.'
The fundraising appeals, sent to supporters, aimed to highlight fears of government overreach by drawing parallels between the legal cases of Julian Assange and those arrested in connection to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
The emails called for the release of Assange, labeling him a 'political prisoner,' and compared his situation to that of the January 6 defendants. The language used in the emails closely resembled rhetoric used by former President Donald Trump and his allies in defense of the January 6 rioters.
In response to the controversy, a spokesperson for the Kennedy campaign, Stefanie Spear, stated that the language in the fundraising emails was 'an error' and did not reflect Mr. Kennedy's views. Spear attributed the mistake to a new marketing contractor and acknowledged that the language had not gone through the usual approval process.
These fundraising messages came shortly after Kennedy argued that President Joe Biden posed a greater threat to democracy than Trump, citing concerns about freedom of speech and social media censorship during the Biden administration.
Trump and his Republican supporters have consistently defended those arrested in connection to the January 6 Capitol attack, at times referring to them as 'hostages' and likening them to political prisoners. Trump has even suggested that he would consider pardoning a 'large portion' of the January 6 rioters if he were to be reelected.
