RFK JR. WANTS TO SEND MEDICAL JOURNAL EDITORS TO PRISON FOR BEING PRO-VACCINE

I know I shouldn't be taking Robert Kennedy Jr. seriously, although he recently polled at 19% in a USA Today survey of Democrats and 21% in an Emerson College survey -- more than 40 points behind President Biden in both cases, but with greater strength than a challenger to an incumbent ought to be showing. Also, because the Democratic Party has rearranged its schedule in an effort to prevent the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary from being the first contests in the nomination campaign, Biden probably won't campaign in those states, which will probably conduct the contests when they please in defiance of the party; Kennedy, along with Marianne Williamson, will likely campaign to win the two contests -- and he might beat Biden as a result. Biden doesn't need that embarrassment, especially if Donald Trump, as now seems likely, is coasting to victory in every state.

I don't believe that most Democratic poll respondents who are choosing Kennedy agree with his vaccine denialism. I think they like the Kennedy family and assume he's politically indistinguishable from his father and uncles. I wonder how many of them would feel the same way about him if they knew he's pondered the appropriateness of arresting Dr. Anthony Fauci, as well as other people who've worked in public health for the federal government. In a recent Twitter thread, he wrote:

It is dawning on mainstream figures like Anthony Fauci that their Covid policies were a public health disaster. Lots of us are angry about the mandates, the lockdowns, the censorship, the insanity. But we need to avoid the toxic quagmire of retribution and blame and focus on ensuring this never happens again. Clean up the regulatory agencies, get corporate money out of public health, and guarantee free, open, uncensored public and scientific discourse.

Of course, officials who betrayed the public trust must not be allowed to hold power. I will remove them from their positions and, if laws were broken, my attorney general will prosecute.

Just to be clear, I will prosecute any official who engaged in criminal wrongdoing during the pandemic.....

As President, I will direct my attorney general to investigate and prosecute every person who knowingly defrauded or deceived the American public about the safety and efficacy of medical products and I will obtain justice and compensation for every American who was injured or suffered the death of family members from those actions.

And Kennedy's anti-vaxx hysteria isn't limited to COVID vaccines. Here he says that he'd like to bring criminal charges against editors of medical journals for not blaming virtually every known health problem on vaccines:

"I'll bring the medical journals ... into the Justice Department as soon as I appoint an AG, and I'll say to them “You guys are part of a racketeering syndicate ... We are gonna sue you both civilly for damages and criminally”" —@RobertKennedyJr https://t.co/kx1qxTVVPL pic.twitter.com/GcwoHqQeJR

— Dr. ZW (@ZombyWoof2022) April 26, 2023

KENNEDY: Right now, all the databases that you can actually check the efficacy and the safety of vaccines, like the vaccine safety databases that the top -- all the vaccine records and the medical claims for ten million Americans from the top ten HMOs -- you can look in there, and overnight you can say, "Oh, this vaccine's associated with diabetes, this one is associated with peanut allergies, this one is associated with ASD [autistic spectrum disorder], neurological tics, whatever" -- that database, CDC keeps it in a lockbox, like Fort Knox, and makes sure no scientist is allowed in there. Well, I'll open up that database on day one. And, also, I'll bring all the medical journals -- The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, JAMA -- into the Justice Department, as soon as I appoint an AG, and I'll say to them, "You guys are part of a racketeering syndicate. You're collaborating with this pharmaceutical industry, lie to the American public about the efficacy and safety of these products, and you're causing enormous harm, and we are going to sue you both civilly, for damages, and we're going to sue you criminally, unless you come up with a plan right now for how you're going to stop doing that."

I'm not worried that Kennedy will somehow be elected president and begin prosecuting everyone who's ever said a vaccine was safe and effective. I'm worried that the Biden campaign's strategy will be to ignore Kennedy on the assumption that he can't even win enough votes to be an embarrassment to the president -- and then he will win enough votes to do just that, largely from people who don't know the depths of his lunacy and would be horrified if they did know, and the media will decide that liberal advocates of vaccine mandates and other public health measures really did go too far and really did oversell the vaccines because of elitist arrogance.

I'm not saying that a lot of resources should be devoted to rebutting this -- just enough to discredit Kennedy, and to remind people that Steve Bannon loves him, Roger Stone loves him, and he and Tucker Carlson are a mutual admiration society.

Biden can show some strength by punching this guy in the nose -- and he deeply deserves it.