A Kennedy — Biden Debate
In Their Own Words
This imagined debate between the two leading Democratic presidential contenders has been created using their stated views on corporate influence on government, vaccines, the Russia - Ukraine war, and the environment. The words of President Joe Biden and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have been edited for clarity, without changing intent or meaning from their original context.
Gentlemen; the presidential election gives opportunities for the American people to decide who their next president will be. To assist those who want to make an informed decision in voting, this forum will present some of your views on key topics.
Mr. President, let’s start with an assessment of your first term, so far.
Biden: We are making progress to lower costs for American families, holding corporations accountable, and growing our economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not just the top down. I signed a groundbreaking executive order on competition that is helping us do everything from lowering the cost of hearing aids to banning non-compete clauses. And in my State of the Union Address, I called for an end to junk fees, that is those hidden surcharges that you see at hotels, concerts, and credit card bills that you didn’t know about before you got the ticket. I continue to call on Congress to pass the Junk Fee Prevention Act because that’s what American consumers deserve. We’re making progress, but we have more to do to reverse decades of concentrated corporate power and to continue to lower prices and increase opportunities for families, workers, and small-business owners and entrepreneurs.
Mr. Kennedy, do you think that concentrated corporate power is being reversed? How would your presidency improve the daily lives of Americans?
Kennedy: Understanding the problem is critical to accountability. One of the principal objectives of my campaign is to figure out ways to bridge the toxic polarization that is really destroying our country and tearing us apart. A lot of it stems from a complete lack of faith in the government. Bureaucracies are owned by the industries, I’m talking about the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Center for Disease Control, the Federal Drug Administration, and the Department of Transportation. My top priority is to end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedom. Too many Americans believe that we are losing our republic to a new brand of corporate feudalism.
Mr. Kennedy; what will change the dynamics between corporations and government?
Kennedy: The Democratic Party has turned into the party of fear and pharma and war and censorship. We have to be more than just neocons with woke bobbleheads. We need to stand up to corporations. We need to stand up against war. We need to put our children first. We need to stop listening to the large corporations in many ways.
Mr. President; how much is the Democratic Party influenced by corporate interests? Do they influence healthcare and vaccine policies?
Biden: We can’t take shortcuts with that scientific work. I’ve made it clear I will do everything within my power to support the FDA with any resource it needs to continue to do this work as safely and as quickly as possible, and our nation’s top doctors are committed to keeping the public at large updated on the process so parents can plan. I called on business leaders to immediately join those who have already stepped up, including one-third of Fortune 100 companies, and institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers, and communities.
Mr. President; doesn’t Big Pharma lobby for government policies because it means more profits for them? Isn’t this a problem with both vaccines and prescription drugs?
Biden: The United States is now the first country in the world to offer safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as six months old. Nearly every American can now have access to lifesaving vaccines. And we're ready. My administration, with the help of the CDC, has been planning and preparing for this moment for a long time. Since I took office, we've been committed to making sure every parent has the opportunity to protect their children from COVID-19. We've secured enough doses and we're launching a comprehensive effort with states, local health departments, pediatricians, family doctors, pharmacies, rural health clinics, community health centers, and other trusted messengers and partners to get the word out to get shots in arms. Parents can schedule appointments and address vaccines at pediatricians' offices, and children's hospitals. Our largest pharmacies and partners, Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart, are scheduling appointments. And yes, America spends more on prescription drugs than any advanced nation on Earth. You name the drug you have to take, and I can take you to France and get it to you a hell of a lot cheaper, to Canada, England, and throughout Europe. It’s not fair. But after decades of trying to take on Big Pharma, we finally, finally won. Instead of paying whatever the drug company wants to charge you, Medicare will be able to negotiate prices.
Mr. Kennedy; the President supports vaccination programs wholeheartedly, along with a majority of medical professionals. Do you have an explanation for the general acceptance of vaccines?
Kennedy: Doctors don’t study vaccine injury in medical schools. Medical schools are largely financed by pharmaceutical companies and they teach a pharmaceutical paradigm. They’re not teaching people how to improve their immune systems, and they teach virtually nothing about vaccine safety. The assumption is that all vaccines work and they never cause injury. People need to do their own research on that issue. The vaccine court has paid out over $4 billion in injuries that have been caused by vaccines, and the Health and Human Services Administration admits that less than one percent of vaccine-related injuries are reported, so now multiply that by one hundred. So it’s a reckless action when the government approves COVID vaccines for infants and children and final proof of the cynicism, corruption, and capture of a once exemplary public health agency. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices members have demonstrated that fealty to their pharma overlords eclipses any residual concerns they may harbor for child welfare.
Mr. Kennedy; on what basis do you question vaccine safety?
Kennedy: Most people argue that vaccines are safe because the CDC says they’re safe, or because the World Health Organization says they’re safe, or because their doctor says they’re safe. In fact, there are no studies that prove vaccines are safe. There are no studies in which vaccinated populations are compared to unvaccinated populations and show that vaccinated populations have better health outcomes. There are about 61 studies that compare vaccinated populations and unvaccinated populations, and the vaccinated populations are always sicker. They have more diabetes, they have more autism, they have more special education, they have more hospital visits, more earaches, more autoimmune diseases, and they have more allergies. There’s no study that we’ve ever been able to find that shows vaccinated populations are healthier.
Mr. President; considering Mr. Kennedy’s comments, why do you believe COVID and other vaccines are safe?
Biden: The vaccines provide strong protections for the vaccinated, but we read about, we hear about, and we see the stories of hospitalized people, people on their death beds, among the unvaccinated. This was a pandemic of the unvaccinated. And it was caused by the fact that despite America having an unprecedented and successful vaccination program, despite the fact that for almost five months free vaccines have been available in 80,000 different locations, we had nearly 80 million Americans who failed to get the shot. And to make matters worse, there are elected officials who actively worked to undermine the fight against COVID-19. Instead of encouraging people to get vaccinated and mask up, they ordered mobile morgues for the unvaccinated dying from COVID in their communities. This is totally unacceptable.
Mr. Kennedy; you and others who questioned administration policies on COVID vaccination have been harshly criticized. What are your views on the way dissenters have been marginalized?
Kennedy: I’m astonished that any elected Democrat would be so estranged from our nation’s history and values as to consider it acceptable for a president to pressure publishers to censor his critics. It’s shocking that a U.S. president would involve the FBI and Homeland Security in efforts to quash dissent. Has no one in the White House read Thomas Paine or Orwell or Huxley or Heinlein or Arthur Koestler or Hannah Arendt or Solzhenitsyn? What do they think the lessons were that we were supposed to have learned from Watergate? From McCarthyism? From Vietnam? The framers placed the right of free expression in the First Amendment precisely to guarantee Americans our sacred right to criticize our government. The First Amendment is not there to safeguard popular speech or government-approved speech. The framers specifically wanted to protect speech that the government finds inconvenient or even detestable. They knew all about pandemics, as there were two epidemics during the Revolutionary War. There was a malaria epidemic in Virginia that decimated General Washington’s troops. And there was a smallpox epidemic that disabled the armies of New England at the very moment they conquered Quebec — and they had to withdraw. Otherwise, today Canada would be part of the United States. Between the end of the American Revolution and the ratification of the Constitution nine years later, there were epidemics in every city that killed tens of thousands of people. Cholera, smallpox, and malaria epidemics in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. They knew about infectious diseases, but they didn’t put exceptions in the Constitution.
Mr. President; your response to this critique?
Biden: These pandemic politics, as I refer to, are making people sick, causing unvaccinated people to die. We cannot allow these actions to stand in the way of protecting the large majority of Americans who have done their part and want to get back to life as normal. We need to do more. This is not about freedom or personal choice. It’s about protecting yourself and those around you — the people you work with, the people you care about, the people you love. My job as President is to protect all Americans.
Mr. Kennedy; does the government have the authority to mandate that everyone is vaccinated during a pandemic?
Kennedy: Federal law requires that the person to whom an Emergency Use Authorized vaccine is administered be advised of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product. They must also be advised of the consequences, if any, of refusing administration of the product, of the alternatives to the product that are available, and of their benefits and risks. The reason for this right of refusal stems from the fact that EUA products are by definition experimental. Under the Nuremberg Code, a universal legal norm, no one may be coerced to participate in a medical experiment. Consent of the individual is absolutely essential. The liability for forced participation in a medical experiment, not to mention liability for injury from such coerced medical intervention, may be incalculable.
Mr. President; let’s move on to another important topic. Why are we supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia?
Biden: Through every single step of this horrific war, the American people have been strong and unwavering in their support. And Democrats and Republicans in Congress have stood together. The United States has worked in lockstep with our Allies and partners around the world to make sure the Ukrainian people are in the strongest possible position to defend their nation, their families, and against the truly brutal aggression of Russia. We haven’t seen the likes of this in a long time. That’s what this is about, helping Ukraine defend and protect Ukrainian land. It is not an offensive threat to Russia. There is no offensive threat to Russia. If Russian troops returned to Russia, they’ll be where they belong, and this war would be over today. That’s what we all want: an end to this war in just and lasting terms. You know, we’re not going to allow one nation to steal a neighbor’s territory by force.
Mr. Kennedy; what do you see as the cause of the Ukraine-Russia War? How would you help settle the conflict?
Kennedy: President Biden has surrounded himself with neocons, a group of people that emerged in the late nineteen-nineties who believed that the collapse of the Soviet Union meant that the United States had earned the right to rule the world for the next hundred years. They're the ones that gave us the disastrous Iraq and Afghanistan wars. And President Biden is now allied with those same people and has a very belligerent foreign policy. When the Soviet Union ended, we made a commitment to Russia, to Gorbachev, that we would not move NATO one inch to the east. We lied. Since then there are thirteen new NATO members, and we put missile systems in those countries with nuclear capacity. We did joint exercises with Ukraine along with the newest members to strengthen NATO. Russia has been invaded twice in the previous 100 years, so one could see why they wouldn’t want hostile forces or nuclear missile systems on their border. We should agree to keep NATO out of Ukraine, which is what the Russians have asked. I think based on those points and concerns, somebody like me could settle this war.
Mr. President; the cost of the war in Ukraine is a great concern to Americans and you have given unprecedented financial support. Considering economic challenges at home, how do you defend this spending?
Biden: Ukrainians are fighting an age-old battle against aggression and domination. It’s a battle Americans have fought proudly time and again, and it’s a battle we’re going to make sure the Ukrainians are well-equipped to fight as well. This is about freedom. Freedom for Ukraine, freedom everywhere. It’s about the kind of world we want to live in and the world we want to leave our children. So, may God protect the brave Ukrainian defenders of their country who keep the flame of liberty burning brightly as we can.
Mr. Kennedy; your view on the economics of the support for Ukraine?
Kennedy: I supported the humanitarian aid to Ukraine, which is what we were told initially was the mission, although I was suspicious of it. But let’s be honest: it’s a US war against Russia, to essentially sacrifice the flower of Ukrainian youth in an abattoir of death and destruction for the geopolitical ambition of the neocons. And oft-stated, of regime change for Vladimir Putin, while exhausting the Russian military so that they can’t fight anywhere else in the world. So far, the United States has allocated $113 billion of aid and military assistance to support the Ukrainian government and allied nations. The entire budget of the EPA is $12 billion. The budget of the CDC is $11 billion. These numbers reveal the priorities of the administration.
Our final topic is the environment. Are we doing enough of the right things to lessen humanity’s impact on the country and the planet? Mr. Kennedy; please begin with your thoughts on this.
Kennedy: You’ll hear this mantra, this trope from the big polluters and their indentured servants on Capitol Hill and elsewhere: we have to choose between economic prosperity and environmental protection. And that’s a false choice in 100% of the situations. Good environmental policy is identical to good economic policy. This is how we ought to be measuring: based upon how it produces jobs and the dignity of jobs over the generations, and how it preserves the value of the assets of our community. If, on the other hand, we do what the big polluters are urging us to do, which is to treat the planet as if it were all about business and liquidation, furthering the exploitation of natural resources to cash in as quickly as possible, we will have a few more years of pollution-based prosperity. Sure, we can generate an instantaneous cash flow on the illusion of a prosperous economy, and we can make a few people billionaires by impoverishing the rest of us. But our children are going to pay for our joyride and they’re going to pay for it with denuded landscapes and a poisoned atmosphere, with huge cleanup costs that are going to amplify over time, that they’ll never be able to pay completely. Environmental injury is deficit spending. It’s a way of loading the costs of our generation’s prosperity onto the backs of our children.
Mr. President; is your administration doing enough to lessen humanity’s impact on the country and the planet?
Biden: Yes, we’re committed to following the science. Yes, we’re determined to strengthen our ambitions and actions. And, yes, we will include communities that have been denied basic security, basic dignity that comes from having clean air, clean water, clean energy jobs, and environmental justice. Environmental issues have been close to my heart for a long time. I convened a major economic forum on Zoom, comprised of the world’s leaders — leading emitters to accelerate progress and help poorer countries and communities deal with the impacts of climate change. But to lead the world, we have to start here at home. During my first week as President, I signed an executive order directing my administration to take sweeping action to tackle the climate crisis. We set a historic goal to direct 40 percent of the overall benefits of all federal investment in climate change, to clean air, clean water, clean transit, and more, to communities that are disproportionately impacted by the environmental degradation.
Mr. Kennedy; is enough being done currently on the environmental front by the U.S. government? If not, where is it lacking?
Kennedy: The greatest crisis that America faces today, directly related to environmental degradation, is the chronic disease epidemic in America's children. The generation of American children born after 1990 is arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country with pediatric rates of some chronic conditions that are the highest in the world. For example, according to CDC, one in every six American children has been diagnosed with a developmental disability such as autism, ADHD, or a learning disability. And according to HHS, an astonishing 54% of American children have a chronic disease like rheumatoid arthritis or juvenile diabetes. Our children today are wandering around in a toxic soup. We need to do the science and we need to figure out which chemicals in these exposures are causing these problems for our children. We're also seeing a global downturn in IQ in the planet's children. How is it that our federal agencies are not asking an essential question; what is debilitating America's children? We need to know that answer, and we need to stop these exposures to our children today.
President Biden; do you agree with that assessment? And if so, what is the government doing about it?
Biden: When I was running for President the last time, I made it a priority to meet with the environmental justice leaders. And I remember one conversation we had in the summer of 2020. Their stories were unforgettable. People living near factories, seeing the paint on their cars literally peel off because the air was so corrosive. Imagine being a parent scared to death about what the air and rain were going to do to your kids. Landfills and garbage incinerators are located right in the middle of communities. Drinking water contaminated by radon and arsenic. This kind of inequity and injustice goes against everything we stand for as a nation, but it continues to exist. We passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to modernize our roads, bridges, ports, airports, and so much more; replacing every single lead pipe in America because we think everyone should be able to turn on a faucet at home or at the 400,000 schools and drink clean water. We’re helping school districts across the country electrify their school buses so kids don’t have to breathe polluted air from diesel exhaust. Across Appalachia and the Great Plains, we’re plugging the so-called orphan wells, which emit methane, which is significantly more dangerous and toxic than anything else that comes out of the ground, more dangerous gases poisoning air and water in rural communities. We’re delivering clean water and clean sanitation to millions of families. And we’re cleaning up toxic pollution, including brownfields and superfund sites which have been a blight on communities for decades.
Gentlemen; it’s time for your closing statements. Mr. President; we will start with you.
Biden: When world leaders ask me to define America, I define our country in one word, possibilities. You know, we’re often told that Democrats and Republicans can’t work together. But over these past two years, we proved the cynics and the naysayers wrong. Yes, we disagreed plenty. And yes, there were times when Democrats had to go it alone. But time and again, Democrats and Republicans came together to defend a stronger and safer Europe. We came together to pass a once in a generation infrastructure law, building bridges to connect our nation and people. Came together to pass one of the most significant laws ever, helping veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. In fact, I signed over 300 bipartisan laws since becoming President. From reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, to the Electoral Count Reform Act, to the Respect for Marriage Act that protects the right to marry the person you love.
The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, and conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere. And that’s always been my vision for our country. To restore the soul of the nation. To rebuild the backbone of America, the middle class. To unite the country. Historic conservation efforts to be responsible stewards of our lands.
And let’s face reality. The climate crisis doesn’t care if your state is red or blue. It is an existential threat. We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to confront it. I’m proud of how America is, at last, stepping up to the challenge. But there’s so much more to do. We will finish the job. And we pay for these investments in our future by finally making the wealthiest and the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share. I’m a capitalist. But just pay your fair share.
I have never been more optimistic about the future of America. We just have to remember who we are. We are the United States of America and there is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together. May God bless you all. May God protect our troops.
And Mr. Kennedy; your closing statement.
Kennedy: The financial consequences of policies reveal their true effects. President Biden has failed to explain the lockdowns to us. That was a 16 trillion dollar mistake and the social and psychological damage is still being calculated. We shifted 4 trillion in wealth from the middle class in this country to the super-rich. In this new aristocracy of billionaires, the lockdowns created a billionaire a day, 500 new billionaires. And the people who came into the lockdown with a billion dollars increased their wealth by 30%. We had 41% of black-owned businesses that will never reopen. Some of those businesses had two or three generations of sweat, equity, and currency. And we closed 3.3 million businesses without due process, without just compensation. Meanwhile, the White House was collaborating with social media to eliminate not only dissent but competition. Amazon got to shut down 3.3 million competitors, including those retail businesses that were the heart and soul of the middle class and our democracy.
I speak to all Americans regardless of party or financial status. I'm going to fight for you and I'm going to fight for your children, and I need your support because the forces that I'm up against are compromising every major institution in our democracy. The people who stand up against them get crushed. But I know how to fight them because I've spent a lifetime fighting big shots and fighting bullies, and that's who they are, and that's who we're dealing with today. People who have that arrogance of power, people who believe that they can get away with anything, including destroying the lives of our children. I am not going to let them do that. And I am going to fight until the last day of my life with the last bit of energy I have to make sure that we get justice for these children.
There are some who might wonder why I invoke my family name and traditions in my campaign for the presidency. When I was young, my father brought us to some of the poverty-stricken neighborhoods of our country, so we could see first-hand how poor Americans lived. Once when he returned from a trip to the Mississippi Delta, at the dinner table, he described being in a tar paper shack that was smaller than our dining room. And there were two families living there, and the children only got one meal a day. He said to us, when you’re older, I want you to help those people, because the big shots, the corporations, the millionaires don’t need the Kennedys because they have lobbyists, they have PR firms and lawyers. And he said the Americans in abject poverty are the people you need to spend your life helping. I’m going to be president for those people also. You give me a piece of ground and a sword and with your help, I am going to take back this country, and support the impoverished and homeless Americans, whether Republicans and Democrats or Independents.
Central to my mission over this campaign and throughout my presidency will be to end corporate kleptocracy. It has commoditized and poisoned our children and all people with chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs, strip-mined our assets, hollowed out the middle class, and kept us in a constant state of war where we have done more damage than good. America can not be an empire abroad and continue to be a democracy at home.
My presidency will invigorate the ideals of the Constitution and renew and purify our spacious skies and amber waves of grain, to ensure the endurance of our purple mountain majesty.
Gentlemen; thank you for sharing your views. Comments are most welcome…