Independent 2024 Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has had a rollercoaster of an election cycle. After failing to gain much momentum for the Democratic ticket, he settled on running Independently. Unveiling a new petition to have Snowden freed from allegations he committed crimes against America, RFK Jr. is keeping to an earlier campaign promised to support the whistleblower who is living in exile.
Announcing his new petition Kennedy said, “Edward Snowden is an American hero. Instead of jailing Snowden, I’m going to build a statue to him and maybe to [WikiLeaks] Julian Assange somewhere near the Washington Press Club or perhaps outside the CIA headquarters in Langley as a civics lesson to the Republic. Snowden, who has been in exile for more than a decade, performed a critical public service by revealing that our government had been spying on millions of law-abiding American citizens, in violation of numerous laws and our fundamental right to privacy.”
He capped off the clip by stating, “The America I love doesn’t punish whistleblowers. Truth-tellers who champion free speech and try to return America to its democratic and humanitarian ideals should be revered, not prosecuted.”
Intersplicing clips of former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump criticizing Snowden, this Kennedy is taking a vastly different approach. Still living in Russia on asylum, the infamous government analyst is proud of his actions. Providing highly classified documents to the Guardian, Washington Post, and multiple other outlets in 2013, Snowden blew open a program by NSA agents and other nations to gather intel on Americans. A breach of trust the American government has yet to ever recover from either.
As the son and nephew of two famous Americans who were killed, RFK Jr. does not forget the theory that US intelligence services had more than just an idea it could happen. Instead, he is rather insistent that they likely had some culpability in their deaths. Vowing to reign back in the US intelligence programs if elected, he is starkly different from other candidates.
