Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hold campaign rally in California
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - On Monday, a presidential candidate took time to pay his respects to our fallen service members on a campaign stop in San Diego.
Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made an appearance at Humphrey's on Shelter Island. Kennedy also addressed the state of the country, speaking about the need to focus on the middle class.
Hundreds of supporters came out this Memorial Day to hear Democratic presidential candidate Kennedy speak, where he touched on everything from COVID lockdowns to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, to his concern that America's middle class is in danger of collapse.
Taking the stage at Humphrey's on Shelter Island, Kennedy paid tribute to all fallen service members by quoting his uncle, John F. Kennedy.
Danger of losing
"The most important way for us to honor the men and women who gave their lives for our country is to protect the rights that they died to give us," Kennedy spoke.
Rights that he's worried Americans are in danger of losing.
I feel like I'm losing my country. I feel like my party has, uh, gone off the rails. It's become the party of war. When the Democratic party was always skeptical about war, it's become the party of censorship, which is the exact it's antithetical to the entire definition and tradition of liberalism," Kennedy expressed.
Garnering headlines over the years is a staunch anti-vaccine activist and sharp critic of the pandemic era lockdown.
"Now the COVID lockdowns, which they supported was a war on the board. The war on the, on minorities and on this country really suffered deeply during that period," Kennedy added.
Cause for concern
Also telling his audience Monday that while the lockdown is over, he believes there is still cause for concern.
"They have not given up the power to impose those in the future. And we have now created in this country, This very, very troubling precedent," Kennedy exclaimed.
He also called for a return of the peace dividend calling for the need to focus on the country's middle class, which he says is drowning in debt.
"We need to buttress our middle class and stop sending money abroad for wars," Kennedy detailed.
Kennedy also criticized the current administration for in his words, spending money that we don't have saying, "We're like a, like an alcoholic who's buy on the mortgage and is taking the milk money and buying rounds for everybody strangers at the bar. We don't have the money."
Environmental champion
Kennedy spent decades as an environmental champion, something he says he would carry on into the White House.
I'm gonna be the best environmental president in history, preserving habitat, regenerative, agriculture, stopping water pollution. We need to preserve something for our children," Kennedy described.
