Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Thursday backed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s baseless claim that the COVID-19 vaccine played a role in baseball legend Hank Aaron’s death, The Daily Beast reports.
Kennedy in the aftermath of Aaron’s death in January tweeted that the Hall of Famer’s death was “part of a wave of suspicious deaths among elderly closely following administration of COVID vaccines,” noting that Aaron had “received the Moderna vaccine on Jan. 5 to inspire other Black Americans to get the vaccine.”
Jordan said he was “just pointing out facts” as he expressed support for Kennedy’s conspiracy theory during the longshot Democratic party presidential candidate’s appearance before a House subcommittee on weaponization of the federal government to testify about censorship.
Jordan complained that the White House falsely flagged Kennedy’s tweet as misinformation.
“Misinformation is when you don’t have the facts right,” Jordan said Thursday.
“But when you look at Mr. Kennedy’s tweet, there was nothing in there that was factually inaccurate. Hank Aaron, real person, great American, passed away after he got the vaccine. Pointing out, just pointing out facts.”
Aaron in the weeks before his death joined civil rights leaders including former U.N. Ambassador and civil rights leader Andrew Young and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan in an initiative to promote COVID-19 vaccines.
The Beast report notes that Aaron died at the age of 86 of natural causes.
