Democrats challenging President Biden speak at Iowa State Fair

DES MOINES — Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. drew a sizable crowd Saturday to his appearance at the Iowa State Fair, including some supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Kennedy told reporters afterward that he would not become Trump's running mate.

Listeners at his appearance at the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox wore shirts that said “Fire Biden” and fanned themselves with fans from Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign.

The son of former attorney general and 1968 Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, he has developed right-wing admirers over his distrust of the media and vaccines, and his opposition to U.S. support for Ukraine after Russia invaded that country.

Kennedy has made a name for himself as an environmental lawyer. But in more recent years, he has gained notice criticizing vaccines, first with the debunked link to autism and then during the pandemic.

Kennedy said he is running “to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power,” a situation he asserts is working “to poison our children and our people with chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs, and to strip-mine our assets, to hollow out the middle class, and keep us in a constant state of war.”

Kennedy blamed decades of U.S. and NATO policy toward Ukraine and Russia for creating conditions for the war.

He said he wants to follow the principle of his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, in that he wants to avoid going to war and instead keep peace.

Kennedy received loud applause for his criticism of and opposition to the construction of proposed carbon dioxide capture pipelines in Iowa that would deposit CO2 extracted from ethanol plants in Iowa to underground sequestration sites. The plan is to inject the CO2 deep into rock formations under Illinois and a reservoir in North Dakota.

Landowners and some Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns about safety and allowing private corporations to use eminent domain to build the pipelines, and qualify for federal incentives. Kennedy said the pipelines are a “boondoggle” that endangers Iowans for the sake of making money for “big oil and big ag.”

He accused Republican supporters of the projects of being influenced by campaign donations. Kennedy made several comments about the influence of Bruce Rastetter, a major Republican donor and backer of Gov. Kim Reynolds, who leads pipeline company Summit Carbon Solutions.

  Buy Photo

Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart, during a recording last week of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS, said Democratic challengers to President Joe Biden are welcome to campaign in Iowa, but said she was concerned about Kennedy’s “antisemitic” comments.

Kennedy in July brought up the idea that COVID-19 had been genetically engineered and “ethnically targeted” to attack Caucasian and Black people, and to spare Ashkenazi Jewish and Chinese people. The candidate’s comments on COVID-19 have been widely condemned by Democrats.

Asked about the criticism, Kennedy told reporters: “I’ve never made an antisemitic comment in my life.”

Marianne Williamson, another Biden challenger for the party’s nomination, also stopped Saturday at the Political Soapbox.

Williamson is an author and spiritual leader and unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.

  Buy Photo

Williamson talked about need for a living wage, universal health care and student loan debt forgiveness, and railed against corporate greed and “economic injustice” that has “ravaged the American middle class, it has ravaged our environment, it has put carcinogens in our foods, toxins in our air.”

She criticized “corporate dominance” and said trickle-down economics has turned Washington into a system of “legalized bribery.”

Williamson also called for declaring a national emergency over the “climate crisis.”

She said the assumption that Biden is Democrats’ best bet in 2024 should be vigorously challenged, and said he should face his primary challengers in a meaningful debate.

“I am here today because the fascists are at the door,” Williamson said. “ … Democracy today is not delivering on its promises. Bidenomics is a message that is viscerally contradictory to the experience of the majority of Americans. … Twenty percent are living on an island surrounded by a vast sea of economic despair.”

  Buy Photo

Williamson said Democrats must show up in 2024.

“As a Democrat, I’m not worried of Donald Trump,” Williamson said. “Donald Trump is doing his thing, God bless you. I’m not worried about people voting for Donald Trump in 2024. What the danger is to the Democrats in 2024 is how many people might stay home.”

A New York Times/Siena College poll conducted in late July found Biden leading the Democratic primary field with 64 percent, followed by Kennedy at 13 and Williamson at 10.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com