Some tech industry giants are hailing and fundraising for the presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy Jr., a candidate known for spreading conspiracy theories about vaccines and COVID-19.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Kennedy’s longtime Democratic primary bid against President Biden’s re-election campaign has caught the attention of some wealthy tech executives in Silicon Valley.
In addition to Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who publicly supported Kennedy’s campaign on Twitter last month, the magazine reported that venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, PayPal co-founder David Sachs, and LimeWire founder Mark Gorton have backed Kennedy’s bid.
Palihapitiya and Sacks hosted a fundraiser at the Sacks Mansion in conjunction with Common Sense, a Kennedy-supporting group, last month, with tickets to a $2,000 cocktail party and dinner for $10,000, the paper reported.
Most of the 75 guests at the San Francisco event were from the tech and cryptocurrency industries, Sophia Carstens, Common Sense treasurer and actress, told the newspaper.
Sachs and Palihapitiya did not comment to the newspaper.
The newspaper reported that Gorton, founder of the now-shut down file-sharing website LimeWire, had created a super PAC supporting Kennedy’s candidacy. Gorton told the paper that his American Values 2024 Super PAC project began as an organization focused on fighting “corruption in the pharmaceutical industry.”
“It disgusts me that the Democratic Party has become the party of neo-conservatives and the party of Big Pharma,” Gorton told the newspaper.
He told the newspaper that it was “noble” for Kennedy to run to “reclaim the Democratic Party from corrupt interests.”
Kennedy announced his campaign in April.
The prominent anti-vaccine activist has also come under piling criticism, including from his sister, for recent remarks about COVID-19.
In a video obtained by the New York Post, Kennedy said COVID-19 was “racially targeted” to attack “certain rates disproportionately.”
“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and blacks. The most immune people are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.
After the backlash, Kennedy appeared to back down from the comments. On Twitter, he said the New York Post story was “wrong” and that he “never suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to save Jews.”
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(tags to translation) Campaign 2024