Support truly
independent journalism
Former President Donald Trump has vowed to task a presidential commission to release all the files related to the 1963 assassination of President John F Kennedy.
Trump made the announcement alongside Kennedy’s nephew Robert F Kennedy Jr at a campaign rally in Arizona on Friday.
The Republican presidential candidate said that if he’s elected to a second term, he would establish an independent presidential commission on assassination attempts which would handle the release of the JFK files.
This comes after Trump himself was the subject of an assassination attempt in July when the bullet of a would-be assassin grazed his ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump said he would task the commission with releasing the remaining documents regarding the Kennedy assassination.
“They will also conduct a rigorous review of the attack last month,” Trump said about his own assassination attempt.
About 4,700 files from the JFK case remain partially or heavily redacted. Kennedy Jr is the son of the former Attorney General and New York Senator Robert F Kennedy who was himself assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign.
Trump said RFK Jr “lost his father and uncle in service to our country, and Bobby himself was subject to repeated threats to his safety during the course of his campaign.”
He added: “This is a tribute in honor of Bobby.”
During congressional testimony last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the gunman who took aim at Trump, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, searched for details on the JFK assassination ahead of the shooting which took the life of one rally attendee and left two others wounded.
The FBI director revealed last month that on July 6, the same day that he registered to attend the rally, Crooks searched for how far Lee Harvey Oswald was from Kennedy when he took the shot that killed the president in November 1963.
“On July 6, he did a Google search for: ‘how far away was Oswald from Kennedy,’” Wray said in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
“That’s a search that’s obviously significant in terms of his state of mind,” the director added. “That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally.”
Trump’s announcement that his re-election would lead to the establishment of a new commission came after Kennedy Jr ended his presidential campaign and endorsed the former president.
The independent candidate and vaccine conspiracy theorist announced the suspension of his campaign on Friday.
“The mainstream of American politics and journalism derided my decision [to run],” the 70-year-old said at a press conference, during which he spoke about chronic disease, and criticized the “corruption” in health agencies as well as the Democratic Party.
“In an honest system, I believe that I would have won the election,” he claimed. Without sharing any evidence, he said the media was “tainted by government propaganda.”
On Friday, Trump said, “Soon after I was – I can’t even believe I have to say this – nearly assassinated in Pennsylvania last month, Bobby called me to express his best wishes.”
“He knows firsthand the risks incurred by leaders who stand up to the corrupt political establishment,” the former president added. “When you stand up, you bring on some trouble for yourself. But you have to do what’s right.”
Trump went on to say that “Bobby himself was subject to repeated threats to his safety during the course of his campaign.”
