Max Blumenthal

A day after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. agreed to a public discussion with Max Blumenthal on Israel-Palestine, his campaign walked back his words. RFK Jr. has pledged “unconditional support” to Israel while spouting vitriolic anti-Palestinian rhetoric.

One day after Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. agreed to comedian and podcaster Jimmy Dore’s proposal that he engage with The Grayzone’s editor-in-chief, Max Blumenthal, in a public dialogue on Israel-Palestine, Kennedy’s campaign nixed the discussion.

During an August 1 phone call with Grayzone correspondent Liam Cosgrove,  RFK Jr. campaign communications director, Stephanie Spear, declared: “[Kennedy’s] not debating Max Blumenthal… He’s not gonna debate anyone. He’s running for president.”

“You’re not hearing me,” she emphasized. “We’re not gonna do it, okay?”

Hours after her call with Cosgrove, Spear contacted Blumenthal directly to explain that Kennedy would not agree to any public discussion with The Grayzone editor until Spring 2024, once the first five primaries are over.

She offered Blumenthal an off-the-record phone conversation with the candidate as an apparent consolation.

Though Blumenthal never insisted on a formal debate, but rather, a live interview such as as the ones Kennedy has granted popular media figures like Dore, Glenn Greenwald and Briahna Joy Gray, Spear repeatedly stated that the candidate would not debate anyone except the President of the United States until the first five presidential primaries are over.

“We’re hitting different demographics, and we’re also hitting on the different issues,” Spear emphasized. “So, you know, it’s really a strategy thing, and – we want to debate President Biden. He’s a Democratic candidate, that’s what we’re waiting for.”

This June, however, Kennedy enthusiastically accepted podcaster Joe Rogan’s offer to participate in a live debate with Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and one of the country’s most vociferous boosters of Covid-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates. Rogan pledged to donate $100,000 to a charity of Hotez’s choice if the doctor entered the octagon. Hotez, who provoked Rogan’s challenge by accusing him and RFK of “vaccine  misinformation,” invited widespread mockery and scorn when he refused to debate.

But now, RFK is refusing to engage on an issue that he recently placed at the heart of his campaign, and which has shocked many supporters who believed he offered an alternative to the pro-war bipartisan consensus: his “unconditional support” for the state of Israel and its military’s conduct in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

During his conversation with Kennedy’s communications director, Cosgrove challenged Spear on the candidate’s sudden timidity. “RFK goes on all these interviews and says that he wants to debate people,” he stated, “so I’m a bit confused about why he says that, and you guys don’t want to debate. Is it your decision, or is it him saying that?”

“It’s the campaign’s decision, Liam,” Spear stated.

“He did not ask for a debate with Max,” she continued in an annoyed tone, “so maybe re-listen to that… We’re not gonna debate, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that.”