The Dershow Mailbag

Why we should ignore Caroline Kennedy's rants about RFK Jr

Alan Dershowitz explains

The big gripe against Bobby Kennedy is that he's an anti-vaxer.

Before you come to that conclusion do me one favor go online and just put in the Allan Dershowitz vs. Robert Kennedy debate over vaccines and you will hear I think an hour and a half long very substantive very good discussion you could call it a debate about whether vaccination should be a compelled I wrote a book about it um Bobby Kennedy has been a leading critic of some vaccines and of big Pharma and of the mechanisms by which vaccinations and vaccines are approved moved by Congress but when you listen to this debate and you know it's a debate I was on one side he was on the other I hope I won the debate you'll have to judge that for yourself but I can tell you even if I was the winner he was not the loser he made an extraordinarily compelling positive argument to be cautious about vaccines Did he convince me about everything no but he's being mislabeled as an anti-vaxer in order to stop people thinking about it and people should think about it people should listen to this debate so please go on wherever you go.

I think if you go on Google and debate Allan Dershowitz vs. Robert Kennedy Jr you'll hear the whole debate and you can judge for yourself. Caroline Kennedy made some terrible statements about him but as far as I'm concerned she doesn't have a lot of credibility let me be very clear I don't like Caroline Kennedy I don't like her. I've had my issues with her over the years most recently.

I'll tell you a few stories you'll find interesting but most recently after I defended President Trump on the floor of the Senate I was invited to a dinner party on Martha's Vineyard and um a British couple and sat me caddy corner from Caroline Kennedy which I've done on many occasions and she looked at me and she said if I knew you had been invited to this dinner I would never have accepted the invitation I'm too polite to get up and leave now so I said, did I offend you in any way well you defended Donald Donald Trump I'm a lawyer I defended

Donald Trump his actions were the actions of Congress and impeaching him was unconstitutional well I should get up now and leave um and um my first reaction was I also defended Teddy Kennedy he drove off a bridge and a woman died.

We had dinner several times after that you didn't get up and walk because I defended somebody who could have been accused of manslaughter I did a good job along with the other lawyers and you know he wasn't accused of any serious crime but to walk to say you would refuse an invitation to sit next to me because I defended somebody you disagree with I mean she is such an overzealous Democrat that for her Republicans can do no right Democrats can do no wrong Trump can certainly do no right and Teddy Kennedy can do no wrong Teddy was my friend I defended him because I thought he everybody is entitled to a defense um did he do the right thing I mean that's for history to judge legally he was entitled to a defense I defended him as I've defended so many other people guilty or Innocent. but for her, you know thinking Trump is not Ted Kennedy. another interesting story this shows you my relationship with one day when President Kenn when President Clinton was President I got a phone call from Caroline Kennedy, Allan would you and Caroline your wife like to come to a dinner party we're hosting for um President Clinton and and and um his wife car his wife Hillary and a mutual friend former student research assistant of mine whose wife was a roommate of Caroline Kennedy in in in Harvard College so there were just six of us at at the dinner halfway through the dinner the Secret Service comes over to Clinton puts the phone in his ear and says a friend would like to talk to you and he walks away and we continue the conversation he's away probably a full 15 minutes you know that's a lot of time for a dinner party then he comes back to the table holding the phone and says here somebody wants to talk to you and it was the man who would talk to him I said hi who is this and the answer was hi oh this is Jeffrey Epstein who had been my client so it was perfectly okay for but he had a 20-minute talk with President Clinton before talking to me for two minutes at Caroline Kennedy's house so to give you a little bit more gossip so shortly after the episode where she wouldn't sit next to me or said she wouldn't sit next to me at dinner I get on a plane from New York to go to Martha's Vineyard, a 28 minute flight Jet Blue and who was sitting in the row in front of me but Caroline Kennedy's husband Ed Schlosberg so I say hi Ed and he doesn't say hello I say Ed hi say hello I mean can I talk to you,he said do I know you? I said how many times have we had dinner it together how many times have I given advice to your children about college and and and and law school are you gonna deny you know me and he just turned his back on me so not my favorite not my favorite family um but you know for her to call her cousin a predator um my God does she not remember her father's history does she not remember the allegations uh that have been demonstrably shown about her father's sexual conduct when he was in the White House I mean the Kennedy family back in the day were not the paradigms of um uh you know monogamy uh and and and um the idea that you know you you you you focus on one person oh sure he's running you know he's trying to get confirmed and her father is no longer alive he's part of history but you know a little sensitivity um so you know let her write her letter that that's fine but let it not be believed just because she wrote it what I would suggest is that if there's any debate about the confirmation let her call let her testify let her be subject to cross-examination I'd love to see Ted Cruz cross-examine her about her her statements regarding his attitude toward um vaccines which are way way way overseed and his and her accusation that he was a predator then she doesn't accuse him of being a sexual predator she accuses him of being a predator in the sense that he was the older of the sons and children of Bobby Kennedy and she says influenced some of the younger people into drugs and other kinds of things well you know if that was the atmosphere in the Kennedy house um she has to deal with that there's a great book written by um uh I'm trying to remember his name now it's called the Kennedy imprisonment and it's um about Joseph Kennedy the father of all the Kennedys the father of Bobby Kennedy and John Kennedy and Ted Kennedy and the three or four other Kennedys and it just tells a terrible story about how he brought up his children and the atmosphere around the house. John Kennedy became a great president despite all of these things Bobby Kennedy was a great attorney general and boy I wouldn't want to have to vouch for his private conduct in his life and yet for her not to realize that or realize it and not say anything about it and to then assume that Bobby Kennedy's private conduct will influence his public office holding is at at at best hypocritical at worst.

It was malicious that's why I use that term now the issue about whether he maintains stock ownership in um companies that might benefit from decisions that he would make as Secretary of H is fair game that's fine I don't think you need her for that many people could testify about that and there will be testimony something irks me though when a relative and somebody who you've had trust in comes and testifies against you I can understand it if it's really important to the survival of our country and all of that but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth by the way another Kennedy Patrick Kennedy who I also know nice young man, Ted Kennedy's son testified or wrote a letter to the Washington Post in favor of Bobby Kennedy so it's not all one-sided like Patrick Kennedy I worked with him as well we work together against the Iranian regime he's a good person a decent person he too has battled um issues and he's hopefully, overcome them and I would hope that Bobby Kennedy has overcome his issues as well a little bit of forgiveness, particularly from a member of a family that requires a lot of forgiveness in terms of their personal lives so again I hate to see a show become a gossipy show but you know and I don't want to do the children's response she started but you know it's it's an important issue Caroline Kennedy warn Senators the former ambassador urge Senators you know former Ambassador what was her qualifications to be Ambassador she once went to the zoo and saw a kangaroo so she's now the ambassador to Australia I mean she had no qualifications for being the ambassador to Australia but uh she endorsed um um uh Obama early on she was I think one of the first Kennedy to endorse Obama and Obama uh rewarded her it's not meritocracy that's um reward for a loyalty and she is a loyal if anything she's a loyal over loyal over Zealot Democrat does she put party before country I don't know she certainly puts party before family some people put family before country these are complicated issues and they're particularly complicated when you know they involve a high-profile family like the Kennedy family um and like all families uh there are great people in the family one beautiful person. I know them I know some of the young people I remember meeting with Bobby Kennedy's children once at my house and knowing they didn't know Bobby they were too young and I was telling them stories about Bobby about the first time I met him and you know just anecdotes bringing him from the history books and the pages of the past into the present that you know I enjoyed my time with the Kennedy family and I enjoyed my time on the Kennedy estate uh on Martha's Vineyard I've also been to the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis, so you know the it didn't surprise me that she has these views about Bobby there's there has been a long division between the Bobby Kennedy part of the family and the Caroline Kennedy part of the family

Caroline Kennedy very deliberately did not want to bring her children up in high sports where she thought they would be exposed to some of the Kennedy negatives but she instead decided to bring them up in Martha's Vineyard where they were exposed to other negatives I mean you know drug use among young famous rich people on Martha's Vineyard is rampant I know because I've gotten calls at 2 a.m. from former friends asking me to bail out their children who have been picked up for drunk and

driving or drug driving and today of course the same people don't talk to me because I defended Donald Trump but uh enough about Martha's Vineyard so let Congress let the Senate make up its mind let it not uh just take at face value what Caroline Kennedy said about her cousin let her be subject to cross-examination uh nobody should be able to say things as nasty as calling somebody a predator without being subject to cross-examination I know whether Bobby Kennedy wants her to be called as a witness um because maybe she'd say

things even beyond what she said in the letter you know I've seen Bobby Kennedy interact with people in all kinds of settings he's a very charismatic guy one thing you don't want to do is ever play volleyball against Bobby Kennedy and be on the other side I never knew until I played volleyball with Bobby Kennedy that volleyball was a contact sport and where do you think I played volleyball I'm going to get gossip again where do you think I played volleyball with Bobby Kennedy of course

it was at Larry David's house and Larry David um hosted a volleyball game I remember I invited President Clinton to come to the game and he wanted to come but his his wife wouldn't let him and I was opposite him I was standing in the front line and he was on the front line the other side he did a spike on my head that I still am feeling reverberations and you know he would throw himself ac across the net he's in great shape physically as you've seen from some of the films of these does these push-ups and everything but he prides himself on keeping himself relatively healthy I mean he lived through a time when he wasn't healthy but um Senate's going to vote let them vote but let them have full information let them not simply say oh she's Caroline Kennedy and wow she's the daughter of the president remember her she was saluting when his body was passing by we have to believe everything she says no I have experience with her she should be subject to cross-examination okay so that's I promise not to do more gossip in the

future but I couldn't resist because I know all these people these are people who have been part of my life for many many many years and U I have strong views about these people and their pros and their cons and I just say take with caution what Caroline Kennedy says about Bobby Kennedy okay some letters Professor Dershow on your show.

I promised to explain later so what was Dave Chappelle's lie well I'll tell you this whole show I got to do half an hour of of of of Gossip so here's the story I was in Israel it was in the first decade of this Century I was at What's called the Herzliya conference and I was one of the speakers and another one of the speakers was former President Jimmy Carter and I knew Jimmy Carter I had worked on his campaigns I had also worked against him I worked for Ted Kennedy when he ran against him in

1980 but Jimmy Carter came over to me and you know hey Alan how are you it's good to see you etc etc etc you know he had put me on his short list uh of possible Supreme Court nominees so we were not tight but uh I liked him he liked me so he um and then there was this conference and he came over to me and he said Allan um there's going to be an election tomorrow the only election ever in the Palestinian Authority and I'm going to be observing the election in Ramallah. I said that's great that's wonderful to have You observe the election in Ral he said would you come with me and I said Gee you know I'd love to come with you but I already have an agreement with the media to interview people in Jerusalem I'm going to be covering the election in East Jerusalem so so I can't go and I said is it going to be safe for you and oh yeah yeah it's going to be perfectly safe no no no problem I'm getting you to know security both from Israel and U from the United States government

Ramallah is a particularly you know peaceful place and I've been in now uh and it is Ramallah is you is like Jerusalem you go there you don't see any Israelis or soldiers or police or anything like that but uh you know they're great shops a lot of electronics they're big in electronics Mercedes all over the place and um great food better than Jerusalem uh so so I and I've been there I've had lunch there at the request of the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority so I know

Ramallah and there was not a single suggestion that it be unsafe or that Israel wouldn't provide him with security but David Chappelle, of course, went on television and said oh Jimmy Carter was so brave he went to Ramallah, without any guards without any protection because Israel refused to protect him I know that that's a lie and I don't know whether Dave Chappelle knows it's a lie maybe Jimmy Carter has said that too but I know it's not true because I was there and I was asked by Jimmy Carter to accompany him. I was assured that it would be safe and um I wish I had accompanied him but I couldn't and that's the last time there was ever an election and of course, we know what happened Hamas took over on the West Bank. I'm sorry in Gaza Hamas would win an election today on the West Bank so Dave Chappelle get your story straight look Dave Chappelle let's be clear is a classic old-fashioned anti-semite no no no no just question about that he he claims Jews control the world Jews control Hollywood Jews

control the black community Jews control everything you know it's so interesting whenever anybody says the Jews you can be pretty sure they're anti-semite sure Hollywood was invented by Jews you know the story of Hollywood Hollywood started in New Jersey with Thomas Alva Edison uh and he was one of the Developers of the machine that showed pictures and so he started a studio he had only one problem he didn't like Jews and so he didn't allow any Jews to work for his film company and it

failed miserably so a bunch of people that used to work in Second Avenue Theater on the lower side of New York said hey you know if Thomas Edison invented it we can perfect it and so many of them comics and actors picked themselves up and went to an obscure part of Los Angeles called Hollywood. There's a great story about that and they started the film industry all the great film companies originally or War a brothers Jewish Goldman you know they were all Jewish companies they were all started by individual Jews didn't mean the Jews controlled it these were individuals who made it on their own merits and there's a great story about it so, of course, the Jews in Hollywood weren't allowed to play golf in the non-Jewish golf club so they started their golf club and apparently, on the 18th hole somebody was digging the 18th hole and oil spit out and it turned out they owned an oil well and from that point, on they didn't you didn't have to pay to get into the club because it was such a wealthy Club

Because of the oil another anecdote about individual Jews had an impact on Hollywood many of them are anti-zionists many of them aren't particularly Jewish in their attitudes they happen to have a name like Warner or Goldman or whatever and then to say the Jews own Hollywood that's Dave Chappelle that's anti-Semitism that's bigotry out and out whenever you say the Jews control the government um that that just just ain't the case look take for example the um Biden Administration the cabinet was filled with people of Jewish background but it was not a pro-Jewish cabinet the Trump cabinet.

I think there's one Jew in the whole so far appointed and it seems much more pro-Israel so you know the idea that if you're a Jew you're going to be immediately pro-Israel and Everything Jewish and if you're not a Jew you're not going to be the most pro-Jewish people in America the most pro-Israel people in America today are Evangelical Christians so this nonsense about the Jews but that's Dave Chappelle but there's one thing even worse than days I'm I'm a great fan of comedy and I often go back and look on YouTube for you know Rodney Dangerfield and and and people like that who knew how to make you laugh okay you suggest that Congress can change the definition of subject to the jurisdiction of in the 14th Amendment so had Congress second thoughts they could have defined blacks as not subject to jurisdiction without bothering to repeal the 14th no wrong because the 14th Amendment also provides equal protection of the laws and you can't discriminate

based on race, the reason that the 14th amendment was passed essentially was to overrule The Dread Scott Decision which said blacks could not be citizens uh if you're even if you're a free slave you couldn't be a citizen so we floated a Civil War, and then had the 14th Amendment okay this idea leads me to two follow-up questions if it turns out that this is something congress could Define that is within the jurisdiction but Congress has not yet defined it then would some form of executive decision be able to stand the Gap and govern until Congress would Define some form of it no I don't think so the 14th Amendment specifically provides article five that Congress not the president Congress shall have the power to enforce the 14th Amendment and Congress can do it if it chooses to by defining what the term subject to the jurisdiction of the United States uh really means uh here's an interesting one do some people claim that all Jews are dual citizens because at any time they can make Aliyah Aliyah means going to Israel no not not every Jew can make Alyah first of all you have to be a good citizen you have to not be charged with any crime but if you are Jewish and without any problems you can become a citizen of Israel you can become a citizen if you're not Jewish too that's true of probably 50 countries of the world where people can become citizens if they are of a certain Heritage or background or if they have roots in a country so no that doesn't make you a dual citizen I am not a dual citizen um know I was offered a job to be Israel's ambassador to the United Nations and I turned it down because I am an American and I didn't want to have a conflict to become the Ambassador from Israel to the United Nations I would have had to become an Israeli citizen a dual citizen I did not want to do that I'm an American citizen and if there were a conflict between my duty as an American and as an Israeli, I obviously go with my duty as an American so um you know so the premise of the letter is not correct so glad you mentioned meritocracy that was the intent of the Electoral College to provide an indirect representation of the People by electors who would cast their votes based on Merit it was not intended for the states to use direct democracy to select the president no that's not right it was intended to give the states great broad authority to decide how to give their electoral votes they could do it by Democratic means as initially some chose to do some didn't uh they could do it by a kind of an elite approach or they could do it by uh meritocracy and so you know our constitution is not the basis for democracy it's a republic if you can keep it as Benjamin Franklin said democracy was asthma to some of the framers because of what they saw happening in France they thought of France the French Revolution as democracy really became prominent uh with the election of Andrew Jackson um and um begins of course with the election of the third president Thomas Jefferson but it doesn't fully emerge until Andrew Jackson and then it goes crazy and goes over the top and starts electing judges and prosecutors and dog catchers and you know you name it um so our country is a mix between a democracy and a meritocracy a democracy can be a meritocracy obviously but it's also between an aristocracy um The Electoral College was not uh to be based on Democratic principles necessarily but a state could make it based on it and now all states have done that see you tomorrow

If you have read this far, and followed Dersh’s rambling gossipy rant, despite the fact he says he does not gossip you have to make up your mind. Should RFK jr be Secretary of our Health and Human Services…..just saying, you make up your mind. He would be a good foil for DJT.

Cabinet members are administrators who are political appointees. Few of them have any skills in their department.