(20 Jul 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC, 20 July 2023
1. Tracking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walks in hallway surrounded by press after House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Gerry Connolly(D) Virginia:
"Frankly, if you videotape this hearing, it could be a Saturday Night Live skit. Except it's not funny."
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, (D) Florida: ++SOUNDBITE STARTS WITH TRACKING SHOT++
" An extremist who has fanned the flames of antisemitism and bigotry and the fact is he should not be given a platform that gives him a megaphone to expound on his extremist, racist and antisemitic views."
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4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Dan Goldman, (D) New York:
"And he has expressed hate speech, hateful speech, which is not protected by the First Amendment. And our -- with the objection that we had is given that there is no right in the First Amendment to appear in a special committee of Congress, it was then unbecoming of Congress to give someone who has demonstrated such hateful rhetoric a platform."
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5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Dan Goldman, (D) New York: ++SOUNDBITE STARTS WITH TRACKING SHOT++
"He can say whatever he wants, whatever he wants, but he doesn't get a right to testify before a committee of Congress, especially when he has no information that related to whatever the government ostensibly did in his case. He's not a fact witness. He doesn't have any information to help the committee's investigation. Instead, he was just given a platform to continue to talk about hateful speech and other dangerous theories. That is unbecoming of Congress."
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6. SOUNDBITE (English) Del. Stacey Plaskett, House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Ranking Member:
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"I thought it was very interesting that the things that he says that he here espoused that he didn't say things but we have the videotape. And I can't really see how the majority has actually advanced what this committee said it was going to do, which is to look at the federal weaponization of government. We've made lots of requests to him about things that he could look at in terms of weaponization. Those have not been taken up. And he seems obsessed with social media. And so that's what it seems that we're going to be continuing to look at.
(Reporter: What do you say to people who are concerned that you were trying to censor RFK Jr by trying to not let him come today?)
Oh, that's not censorship. Censorship is not being allowed to let someone to speak, he can speak. That doesn't give him necessarily the ability to have to do it in the halls of Congress."
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STORYLINE:
House Democrats blasted the testimony of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who worked to defend himself Thursday against accusations that he traffics in racist and hateful online conspiracy theories.
Congressman Dan Goldman, D-NY, told reporters after the hearing, "He doesn't get a right to testify before a committee of Congress, especially when he has no information that related to whatever the government ostensibly did in his case."
"He's not a fact witness." Adding, "He was just given a platform to continue to talk about hateful speech and other dangerous theories. That is unbecoming of Congress."
Democrats argued that free speech comes with responsibilities not to spread misinformation, particularly when it fans violence.
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