Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Baffles Senator Tim Kaine With Claims He 'Won't Take Sides on 9/11': 'Do You Find It Hard To Tell What Is a Conspiracy Theory?'

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was grilled by Senator Tim Kaine about controversial social media posts he'd made regarding the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

On Thursday, January 30, during the second day of his confirmation hearings for Health Secretary, Kaine brought up one comment Kennedy Jr. made during his 2024 election campaign in which he vowed not to "take sides on 9/11 or any of the other debates" if he were to be elected president.

"We take that kind of stuff pretty personally. Virginians know what happened on 9/11," Kaine said. "We don’t need folks giving oxygen to conspiracy theories about 9/11."

"Now one thing I noticed about this post is it was in July of 2024. It was 23 years after 9/11. You had a lot going on in your life. You were running for president then," he continued. "What made you decide in the midst of everything going on in this country, in this world, in July of 2024 and your own candidacy for president, that now was the time to say it’s hard to tell what is conspiracy and what isn’t about 9/11. What was so important about making this point in July of 2024?"

Kennedy Jr. began to argue there'd been a "dramatic drop in trust" in the government in recent years.

Kaine interrupted, "No, no, no. I want to move aside from that because you say, you go on to say, I won’t take sides, as president, I won’t take sides on 9/11. Wow. I won’t take sides on 9/11. Let me ask you this. As a general matter, do you find it hard to tell what is a conspiracy theory and what isn’t? Is that kind of a general deficit that you find in your own analytical abilities?"

The 71-year-old claimed his father told him when he was a boy that "people in authority lie and that the job of a citizen in every democracy is to maintain a fear and skepticism of government authority."

Kaine reminded him that he is an authority now who has admitted to having a "hard time telling what is a conspiracy theory and what isn't."

Kennedy Jr. argued he would only "take sides" on things he personally investigates, rather than tell people they are "crazy" for holding a certain opinion.

"I’m going to say, what is your evidence? And if I hear the evidence, I’m going to say, that doesn’t make any sense," he noted.

Seemingly baffled, Kaine concluded, "So, you won’t take sides on 9/11? Wow."