Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week said that if elected, he would "appoint a special counsel to look into" the sentences of those convicted for participating in the Capitol riot.
Kennedy told NewsNation's Chris Cuomo on Monday that naming a special counsel to investigate the sentences given after the riot would be "appropriate" and would "restore peace" in the country.
"I would appoint a special counsel to look at that," Kennedy said on "Cuomo." "My purpose, Chris, is not to exonerate those people, but rather just to restore peace. I think, you know, we're living in a time when Americans don't trust their government anymore. And that is really what the problem is. There is no trust in government, and we need to restore that trust."
The candidate also addressed a recent campaign fundraising email that described those who participated in the riot as "activists" who were "stripped of their constitutional liberties," a statement that the campaign later described as "an error" that "was inserted by a new marketing contractor and slipped through the normal approval process."
Kennedy said on Monday that his campaign made a "couple" of mistakes that "started with an email that went out about Jan. 6 from my campaign that did not reflect my views about Jan. 6, and it was followed very quickly by a press release that had a factual error in it."
He said: "All I can say is: This is my responsibility. It's my campaign. We have a lot of hardworking people on the campaign, but we're all drinking from fire hoses."
Kennedy said he believes the incident on Jan. 6, 2021, was a "protest that turned into a riot," but questioned whether it would be appropriate to call it an insurrection.
"I think there were people who wanted insurrection," he said. "But I don't know what your definition of an 'insurrection' is. If your definition is armed men who are in aid who are intending to take over the United States government, it wasn't that. I think there were people there who wanted to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the other."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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