Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had an interview with independent journalist Glenn Greenwald Friday. You might remember him when he helped get Edward Snowden’s story out there, revealing that the government had been extensively surveilling citizens.
In an interview with Brianna Joy Gray, newly minted presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West got to opine about Kennedy’s recent interview. Gray showed a clip from it first.
Surprisingly, the issue they chewed on wasn’t the vaccine stuff but Israel. Gray, a non mainstream progressive through and through, took issue with Kennedy’s nuanced, very slightly pro-Israel stance:
Kennedy said, “I think part of the responsibility of the US is to try to find a path for justice for the Palestinians. On all these issues, if you live in any of these countries and you’re gay, you could be killed for that. Israel is the only place where you have freedom. You’d much rather be in Israel than any other place. We need to have the same standard for judging Israel as we judge other Arab countries.”
Sounds reasonable enough, right? I wouldn’t quantify Kennedy’s statement as a reflexively pro-Israel stance. Just that you need to look at Palestine’s human rights violations and not put them on a pedestal. But when Gray asked West about Kennedy’s viewpoints, he went off saying,
“You want in any presidential candidate to have backbone, integrity, consistency. Many are tied to a discourse that renders the suffering of Palestinians in Israel. Israel has a right to exist. And therefore it has a right to do whatever it wants to do, including killing innocent people. And I ask my brother RFK Jr., do you know what happened between July 8 and Aug 26 of 2014? 551 precious Palestinian babies killed in 50 days. Who spoke out for those precious Palestinian babies? Were the babies somehow tied to Hamas? Were they somehow a threat to Israel? No. If he thinks the killing of each baby was somehow was never in any way, intentional or deliberate on Israel’s part, that they didn’t know what they were doing, he needs to really get off the crack pipe. He must think we have absolutely no sense of what’s going on in the world.”
A strange tug of war between two notable figures on the left. West though isn’t mincing words, and feels his extreme statements are probably the best way to get him to stand apart from the rest of the field. Think about all of former President Donald Trump’s challengers. Most are too scared to directly criticize him, and they find themselves sinking in the polls because of it.
West was also on Laura Ingraham’s program Monday where he gave a surprisingly cordial interview. The two had spoken before and have a friendly relationship. The comments from Fox News viewers on their Youtube page lit up in support of Dr. West. Although, since he announced he’ll be running with the Green Party, the GOP is probably all too happy to have a viable third party, left leaning candidates take votes away from President Joe Biden in key swing states:
Still, West keeps making waves with his statement, and thus is increasing his visibility. He knows how to play to the game. At this point, he’s gotten more media coverage than the last Green Party candidate in 2020, and is already surpassing 2016 Green nominee Jill Stein in terms of media interviews.
He’s on track to be the most visible Green Party candidate in history. And that might just be a recipe for success.
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