RFK Jr. Wants To 'Hear Every Side' About Jan. 6 Attack On U.S. Capitol

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday suggested that the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol wasn’t a “true insurrection,” expressed concern for the “harsh treatment” of those charged over their participation in the attack, and blamed “both establishment parties” for capitalizing on the incident on the campaign trail.

The statement followed controversy over a fundraising email his campaign sent this week that referred to Jan. 6 defendants as “activists” who have been “stripped of their Constitutional liberties,” as reported by NBC News. His campaign later said that the message was an “error” and blamed a new contractor.

In his latest statement, which contained multiple falsehoods about the Capitol attack, Kennedy called it “one of the most polarizing topics on the political landscape” and said that he was listening to “diverse viewpoints” to “make sense of the event and what followed.”

“I want to hear every side,” he said about the well-documented event that occurred more than three years ago, when a mob of Donald Trump supporters sought to violently overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. They chanted for Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, to be hanged as they stormed the Capitol and injured more than 100 police officers, one of whom later died as a result.

“I have not examined the evidence in detail, but reasonable people, including Trump opponents, tell me there is little evidence of a true insurrection,” he continued. “They observe that the protestors carried no weapons, had no plans or ability to seize the reins of government, and that Trump himself had urged them to protest ‘peacefully.’”

Multiple Trump supporters carried dangerous weapons on Jan. 6,