RFK Jr.’s Campaign Denounces Email Referring to Jan. 6 Defendants as ‘Activists’

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign initially referred to the Jan. 6, 2001 protesters as “activists” who had their Constitutional liberties stripped away, but now acknowledges it was an “error.”

A campaign email from Kennedy used this description while calling for the release of Julian Assange, according to The Washington Post.

The email titled “We Must Free Assange!” urged supporters to sign a petition for Assange’s release and compared those jailed for the Capitol action to Assange and Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked top-secret U.S surveillance programs.

Snowden currently resides in Moscow.

As per NBC News, the email from Team Kennedy stated: “This is the reality that every American Citizen faces — from Ed Snowden, to Julian Assange to the J6 activists sitting in a Washington DC jail cell stripped of their Constitutional liberties. Please help our campaign call out the illiberal actions of our very own government.”

A British court is currently deciding on Assange’s extradition to the U.S.

On Thursday, the Kennedy campaign stated that the candidate did not approve the email’s wording and claimed it was an error made by a contractor who has now been terminated.

However, Kennedy has previously downplayed the Jan. 6 protest and shown openness to pardoning them, as noted by the Post.

Kennedy spokesperson Stephanie Spear told NBC News that the language used was an “error.”

“That statement was an error that does not reflect Mr. Kennedy’s views. It was inserted by a new marketing contractor and slipped through the normal approval process,” she explained.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has promised to free those he believes were “wrongfully imprisoned” due to the Jan. 6, 2021 protests at the U.S. Capitol if he gets elected again.

In a post on his Truth Social account on March 11, Trump stated, “My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!”

Trump has also referred to the jailed defendants as “hostages,” a term the White House has described as “grotesque.”