Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly has a neurological disorder that affects his vocal cords and gives his speech a strained quality.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly has a neurological disorder that affects his vocal cords and gives his speech a strained quality.

Robert Kennedy Jr. apologized for offensive remarks he made that implied Jews in Nazi Germany had more freedoms than unvaccinated people in America.

At a rally in Washington D.C. on Sunday, Kennedy remarked that “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.” This is not the first time Kennedy has invoked the Holocaust to spread his message of distrust in COVID-19 vaccines, and he was swiftly met with backlash for the remarks.

Among those who slammed Kennedy were the Auschwitz memorial, as well as his own wife, actress Cheryl Hines.

Hines disavowed her husband's comments as “reprehensible and insensitive” and said the atrocities of the holocaust should never be compared to anyone or anything. She also made sure to clearly distance herself by stating “His opinions are not a reflection of my own.”

In his apology, Kennedy stated he wanted to apologize for referencing Frank while also stating why he made the comparison.

This was not the first time Kennedy has invoked the Holocaust or similar comments to complain about vaccines and the pandemic, as he released a video last month showing Dr. Anthony Fauci in a Hitler mustache, the Associated Press reports. He has also complained that Fauci has been orchestrating fascism, and spoke to the Ron Paul Institute in October, where he compared the public health measures taken during the pandemic to Nazi propaganda, stating it was being designed to get people to abandon critical thinking.

He also invoked the Holocaust to speak out against vaccines long before the COVID-19 pandemic, stating in 2015 that “They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone. This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”

Kennedy’s views on vaccines are not shared by the rest of his family, who have previously pointed out that his uncle, President John F Kennedy, even signed the Vaccination Assistance Act of 1962 while the country was suffering a measles outbreak.