The campaign of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has walked back a fundraising email describing Jan. 6 rioters as “activists,” reports say.
The communication, which was retracted within hours, was signed by “Team Kennedy,” according to NBC News. “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,” the email read.
“That statement was an error that does not reflect Mr. Kennedy’s views,” Kennedy spokesperson Stefanie Spear said later. “It was inserted by a new marketing contractor and slipped through the normal approval process.”
The campaign also told The New York Times that it had terminated its contract with the company it blamed for the mistake, with Spear adding that “anybody who violated the law on Jan. 6 should be subject to appropriate criminal and/or civil penalties.”
The bungled email echoed the rhetoric of Kennedy’s 2024 presidential election rival Donald Trump, who is given to describing the rioters as “hostages” who have been treated unfairly by the justice system.
Earlier this week, RFK Jr. sparked a backlash by saying he could “make the argument that President Biden is the much worse threat to democracy” than Trump.