Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he will pardon embattled journalists and whistleblowers, namely Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, if he takes the White House in 2024.
In a May 2 tweet, Kennedy claimed that the United States government does not practice what it preaches when it comes to the First Amendment.
“Instead of championing free speech, the U.S. actively persecuted journalists and whistleblowers,” wrote the nephew of 35th President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy vowed to wield his presidential authority to pardon “brave-truth tellers” who expose U.S. government crimes and corruption, specifically mentioning Assange and Snowden.
Snowden, a whistleblower who exposed the Obama administration’s National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 for illegally spying on millions of Americans, has been living in exile in Russia after the U.S. government charged him under the Espionage Act.
Other brave truth-tellers include John Kiriakou, Chelsea Manning, Reality Winner, Daniel Hale, Thomas Drake, Jeffrey Sterling, and Edward Snowden. They were trying to return America to its democratic and humanitarian ideals.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 2, 2023
Assange, founder of Wikileaks which exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq, faces 17 charges of espionage for allegedly publishing classified U.S. government documents and is currently imprisoned in London pending his extradition to the U.S.
“I’ll pardon brave-truth tellers like Julian Assange and investigate the corruption and crimes they exposed. This isn’t the Soviet Union. The America I love doesn’t imprison dissidents. #Kennedy2024,” he added.
The son of former Attorney General and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy went on to express his belief that these journalists and government whistleblowers risked it all to help America become as great as it once was.
“Other brave truth-tellers include John Kiriakou, Chelsea Manning, Reality Winner, Daniel Hale, Thomas Drake, Jeffrey Sterling, and Edward Snowden. They were trying to return America to its democratic and humanitarian ideals,” Kennedy added in a an additional tweet.
RFK Jr., officially declared his candidacy seeking the Democratic nomination for President of the United States on April 19 during an event in Boston, Massachusetts and pledged to end the “corrupt merger of state and corporate power” in America.
“My mission over the next 18 months of this campaign and throughout my presidency will be to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening out to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism in our country, to commoditize our children, our purple mountains majesty,” said Kennedy in his announcement.
He added that corporations have captured government “To poison our children and our people with chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs. To strip-mine our assets. To hollow out the middle class and keep us in a constant state of war.”
Upon announcing his effort to defeat incumbent president Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, Kennedy received roughly 14 percent support among Democratic primary voters.
The Democratic National Committee, which fervently supports Biden’s reelection effort, announced that they will not be having a Democratic primary debate, notably as Kennedy’s support increased to nearly 20 percent.
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