Three hours after claiming that “reasonable people” told him that rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 “carried no weapons,” independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. retracted his statement.
“My understanding is that none of the January 6 rioters who invaded the capitol were carrying firearms was incorrect,” Kennedy said in a statement to Raw Story. “Several have been convicted of carrying firearms into the Capitol building. Others assaulted Capitol police with pepper spray, bludgeons, and other makeshift weapons. This behavior is inexcusable. I have never minimized the seriousness of the riot or any crime committed on that day.”
RELATED ARTICLE: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says J6ers didn’t carry weapons. Here’s how wrong he is.
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Raw Story today reported that Kennedy’s original statement was categorically false.
Other news organizations, including NBC, CNN and The Guardian, likewise reported that Kennedy’s statement wasn’t true. Fact-checking organization PolitiFact deemed Kennedy’s assertion a “pants on fire” falsehood.
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The false claim that no one brought weapons to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been repeatedly debunked by a congressional committee, the Department of Justice and countless media fact-checks.
In his original statement today, Kennedy couched his false claim with the disclaimer that he has not “examined the evidence in detail.”
Kennedy poses a potential threat to both President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
But Kennedy, who entered the race one year ago this week as a Democrat before switching party affiliation, first needs to qualify to appear on the ballots of all 50 states in order to truly establish himself as a force ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.
