RFK Jr walks back campaign email calling Jan 6 rioters ‘activists’

The campaign for independent presidential candidateRobert F Kennedy Jr backpedalled after his message to donors labelled January 6 defendants as “activists” who have been “stripped of their Constitutional liberties.”

A Thursday “Team Kennedy” campaign email, obtained by NBC News, read: “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,” the email continued.

On Friday, his team sent out a statement to “clarify” his stance on the events of January 6, noting that he has “not examined the evidence in detail” and was “concerned about the possibility” that January defendants’ sentences were motivated by “political objectives.”

“It is quite clear that many of the January 6 protestors broke the law in what may have started as a protest but turned into a riot,” the statement read. “I have not examined the evidence in detail, but reasonable people, including Trump opponents, tell me there is little evidence of a true insurrection.”

Mr Kennedy added that like many Americans, he was “concerned about the possibility that political objectives motivated the vigor of the prosecution of the J6 defendants, their long sentences, and their harsh treatment.” This, he continued, would “fit a disturbing pattern of the weaponization of government agencies,” like the Department of Justice, “against political opponents.”

The independent candidate emphasised that while he opposes Mr Trump and “all he stands for,” he is still “disturbed by the weaponization of government against him.”

He vowed, if elected president, to