CNN's Jake Tapper is adamant he would never appear in a town hall with Robert F. Kennedy Jr..
In April, RFK Jr.–the son of late former US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of Democratic President John F. Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy–announced he was running against Democratic President Joe Biden for the party's presidential nomination.
Although some Democratic voters have been open to a Biden alternative to lead the country, RFK Jr. was not the challenger Democrats had in mind due to his anti-vaccine misinformation, myriad conspiracy theories and support from conservatives.
When Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor asked Tapper if he would do a town hall with RFK Jr., the political news anchor replied:
"I would not."
Tapper elaborated that RFK Jr.:
"Spreads dangerous misinformation about childhood vaccines."
Tapper continued speaking from his professional experience with the known anti-vaxxer going back to 2005 when RFK Jr. began "his anti-childhood vaccine campaign."
The CNN news anchor mentioned an article RFK Jr. wrote for Salon.com jointly published with Rolling Stone since retracted by both publishers.
Tapper said:
"It was like it never happened."
He added:
"Anyway, I just dealt with hin and he was so dishonest in that [reporting] experience."
"And since then he lies about the experience frequently as an example of how the media is co-opted by Big Pharma."
You can watch the segment here.
According to Tapper's standard of not casting the spotlight on dishonest candidates, some people thought the same should have applied to former Republican President Donald Trump before CNN chose to feature him last month in their town hall in New Hampshire hosted by Kaitlan Collins.
Twitter users continued sharing their observations.
RFK Jr. is the founder and chairman of Children's Health Defense–an anti-vaccine advocacy group.
During the pandemic, he emerged as the leading conspiracy theorist attacking the COVID-19 vaccine with pseudoscience and misinformation. Kennedy targeted and publicly criticized public health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci.
RFK Jr. is a lawyer with no formal scientific or medical training. His status as a health expert is entirely self-proclaimed.
In February 2021, Instagram banned RJK Jr.'s account "for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines" according to a spokesperson for Meta. RFK Jr. and his content have been removed from other platforms for providing misinformation and lies as proof of vaccine harm.
