Challenger to Biden accused of anti-semitism
By Guy Page
Vermonters are criticizing Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vermont) for signing a letter seeking to stop Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from testifying before Congress about censorship.
The letter, signed by Balint and 101 other House members (mostly Democrat), failed to achieve its purpose as Kennedy, a challenger for the Democratic nomination for president, on July 20 addressed the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
At issue were statements at a dinner party July 15 and caught on video and reported in the New York Post. RFK Jr. said “Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people” and that Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people are the most immune.
The comment was immediately lambasted as anti-semitic by many in the press and by many elected Democrats, including Balint, who is Jewish. She signed onto a July 18 letter authored by Florida Rep. Debby Wasserman-Schultz saying that “Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly and recently spread vile and dangerous antisemitic and anti-Asian conspiracy theories that tarnish his credibility as a witness and must not be legitimized with his appearance before the U.S. Congress nor given the platform of an official committee hearing to spread his baseless and discriminatory views.”
“He was testifying on the federal government’s role in censoring U.S. citizens,” Cathy Hoyt wrote in a letter to the editor published in the Vermont Daily Chronicle. “Even while testifying they tried to prevent him from speaking. I don’t agree with much of what Balint stands for, but agreeing to censorship is inexcusable.”
Jacqueline Brook of Putney agreed.
“The Democrats try to censor RFK, Jr., in a hearing on censorship,” she wrote to VDC this weekend. “Unbelievable! The Democratic Party, the party of the new Grand Inquisition.”
“This is apparently the treatment Congress dishes out if you try to discuss scientific studies, published papers, on vaccines, that are not totally pro-Big Pharma,” Brook said.
RFK Jr. is a longtime, leading critic of mass, mandated vaccination, including the Covid-19 vaccine. Besides pushing back against being accused by Wasserman-Schultz of anti-semitism – “I won’t be lectured to about antisemitism from Democratic lawmakers like Wasserman Schultz who voted to give Iran $150b while that regime promises a new Holocaust against the Jews” – the dark horse candidate also explained his provocative comment about Covid-19 and Ashkenazi Jews, who are descended from central European Jews and are the dominant Jewish ethnic group.
Historically, anti-semites have accused Jews of causing major catastrophes, such as plagues and wars. For example, Adolf Hitler held Jews to blame for Germany’s surrender to the Allies in the First World War, setting the stage for the Holocaust.
RFK, however, was referring to a study showing Jews (and the Amish), as well as some Asians, are less likely to develop Covid-19 based on their genetics.
In a Newsweek interview with Paul Bond, RFK cited a 2020 study posted on the National Institute of Health website which concludes: “39% and 54% of deleterious variants in ACE2 [genetic factors receptive to Covid-19] occur in African/African-American and Non-Finnish European [Caucasian] populations…..Amish and Ashkenazi Jewish populations do not appear to carry such variants in ACE2 coding regions.”
Balint has not referred to the Wasserman-Schultz letter and its charges against RFK on her social media sites, which are focused mostly on flood relief.