While Newsmax joined the rest of the ConWeb in hyping Robert Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign when he was running as a Democrat because he might hurt President Biden then backing off when he moved to running as an independent in a way that might hurt Donald Trump, it has been alone in the ConWeb in continuing to cover his campaign at all — and, surprisingly, covering criticism of him as well as the positive stuff. That has continued since the last time we checked in.
Here are some of the positive articles it published:
- RFK Jr. Gets on Ballot in Key Battleground State Mich.
- RFK Jr. Gains Ballot Access in Texas
- RFK Jr. Secures Funding for Ballot Access
- CPD’s Fahrenkopf: RFK Jr. Could Sue CNN Over Debate Exclusion
- RFK Jr. Submits 135,519 Signatures for N.Y. Ballot
- RFK Jr. Gains Ballot Access in Florida With Reform Party
- RFK Jr. to Hold Debate Counterprogramming
- RFK to Newsmax: Prayers for Trump, Halt Political Division
But Newsmax has also written up some of Kennedy’s missteps, such has mixed messaging on the Capitol riot:
- RFK Jr. Campaign Disavows Email Calling Jan. 6 Defendants ‘Activists’
- RFK Jr. Wants to Hear ‘Every Side’ on Jan. 6 Prisoners
That was followed by an article featuring former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a member of the House committee that looked into the riot, claiming that Kennedy’s flip-flops show he has been “hijacked by MAGA.”
(UPDATE: Newsmax also published a June 6 column by Susan Estrich justifying Kennedy’s exclusion from debates because he “has yet to meet the commonsense qualifications that CNN has set for participants.”)
Newsmax also captured snippets of Donald Trump’s love-hate relationship with Kennedy:
- Trump Looks to Throttle RFK Jr.’s Campaign
- Trump: Biden, RFK Jr. Both ‘Far Left’
- Trump Accuses RFK Jr. of Being ‘Total Fake’
- Trump to Newsmax: RFK Jr. Should Be in Next Debate
- Trump: Give Secret Service Protection to RFK Jr.
- RFK Jr.: Not Dropping Out of Race After Meeting Trump
- RFK Jr Apologizes After Video of Call With Trump Leaks
- Report: Trump, RFK Jr. Discuss Endorsement, Admin Job
- Ad Campaign Launched Claiming ‘Only Kennedy Can Beat Trump’
- Kennedy: Trump ‘Terrible Human Being,’ ‘Sociopath’
Newsmax also noted fretting that Kennedy’s campaign could hurt Trump:
Finally, Newsmax devoted a July 2 article by Sam Barron to Anthony Fauci torching Kennedy:
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the White House’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic recalled a meeting he had with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who is running an independent campaign for president, in a podcast interview Monday.
Fauci, who previously served as director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said he met with Kennedy during the Trump administration when Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer, lobbied to be named the head of a White House commission on vaccine safety.
“The first slide I remember he showed is that ‘It has been shown that vaccinations are responsible for the following diseases,’ and he gave every disease in the world,” Fauci said in an interview with David Axelrod, a CNN pundit. “For the next 40 minutes or so, he showed slide after slide after slide that day that make no sense at all.”
Fauci said after the meeting he tried to explain to Kennedy that what he said made no sense from a scientific standpoint. Kennedy later wrote a critical book of Fauci called “The Real Anthony Fauci,” where he accused him of funding rigged scientific research and sabotaging treatments for AIDS.
“I don’t know what’s going on in his head, but it’s not good,” Fauci said of Kennedy, claiming Kennedy’s book said he killed people with vaccines.
One possible answer to that might be the brain worm, which the apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy covered in a May 8 article.