RFK Jr.’s Creepy Claim About Jeffrey Epstein Has a Hidden Dark Side

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2024

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. triggered an online explosion with a very weird defense of himself for spending time with Jeffrey Epstein. Everyone laughed, but we think this saga is revealing: It opens a window on his underappreciated appeal to disaffected young men. So we chatted with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a New School professor who specializes in politics and culture and has dissected the Kennedy phenomenon in surprising ways. Petrzela helped us uncover the darker undercurrents driving Kennedy’s popularity and the ugly truths it reveals about our politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:47.3	Thank you very much for your support. This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
1:08.2	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
1:15.9	This week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. set off an online explosion with a very strange quote about his time spent with Jeffrey Epstein.
1:21.5	RFK argued that he spent a lot of time in New York, which inevitably put him in the company of
1:26.5	people like Epstein, and he added,
1:29.0	other dubious characters like Harvey Weinstein, OJ Simpson, and Bill Cosby. Somehow, RFK thought of that
1:36.8	as a defense. Everyone laughed about this, but this whole saga has a dark and more consequential
1:42.6	side that's gone unnoticed. Kennedy, who's running a third-party candidacy saga has a dark and more consequential side that's gone unnoticed.
1:44.9	Kennedy, who's running a third-party candidacy, has a certain type of cultural appeal to young people,
1:50.6	young men in particular, that is showing up in polls and could impact the presidential race.
1:55.7	And in an interesting way, his bizarre Epstein moment sheds light on why.
2:00.1	To explain this, we've invited on Natalia
2:02.3	Melman Petrazella, a professor at the new school who specializes in politics and culture,
2:07.6	and has lately been writing things that dissect Kennedy's cultural attractiveness to young people.
2:13.2	Welcome, Natalia. Hi, I'm glad to be here. Thank you. Let's start with Kennedy's appeal to young voters.
	...

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