Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has endorsed quack doctor Sherri Tenpenny as someone who’s “leading this movement” against vaccines and recently featured her at a “health policy roundtable.” Tenpenny last year promoted the conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 vaccine is a “bioweapon” that doesn’t affect Jewish people and has shared numerous antisemitic claims on social media, including Holocaust denial and praise for The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. 

Tenpenny’s promotion of the conspiracy theory about Jewish people and the COVID-19 vaccine is newly relevant as Kennedy recently made a similar claim, stating that there’s “an argument” that COVID-19 is “ethnically targeted,” adding: “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” 

Kennedy is scheduled to speak at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the weaponization of the federal government on Thursday. 

Tenpenny is an anti-vaccine commentator who became well-known after she falsely claimed during a 2021 hearing in Ohio that the COVID-19 vaccine makes you “magnetized.” She predicted last year that “by the end of 2022, every fully vaccinated person over the age of 30 may have the equivalent of full-blown vaccine-induced immune suppressed AIDS.” She has become one of the leading online promoters (along with Kennedy) of false claims about vaccines. 

Tenpenny has been a significant ally of Kennedy over the years. She participated in a Kennedy campaign “health policy roundtable” last month, where she was described by Kennedy as a “renowned” critic “of prevailing health policy.” She has numerous other connections to the presidential candidate: 

• Kennedy has endorsed her work, telling people in response to their concerns about vaccines: “There’s a couple of things that people should be doing … They need to join the organized resistance, which means joining Children’s Health Defense, supporting what you do, Polly, with vacs too, supporting Dell, supporting Rashid Buttar and Sherri Tenpenny, the people who are stalwarts, who are leading this movement.”
• Tenpenny has said of Kennedy: “I've known Bobby personally for a long time. You know, we've had dinner together multiple times. We've shared the stage at various conferences. He's wicked smart.” 
• She was featured as an “expert” in a 2021 event with Kennedy “regarding the safety and effectiveness of the COVID vaccine.” 
• She was a guest in 2020 on Kennedy’s show Truth, where she was described as a “renowned physician.”
• Children’s Health Defense, which was founded by Kennedy, has featured Tenpenny in videos as an expert and has published her writing. 
• She appeared on the now-defunct Russian-funded network RT America with Kennedy about vaccines.

Kennedy has numerous connections to other extremists, including a fringe commentator who claimed that “Hitler was a Rothschild” and that he was “utterly set up.” His presidential campaign has been cheered on by right-wing media figures and — after floating his Jewish COVID conspiracy theory — anti-semites and neo-Nazis. Children’s Health Defense has also conducted outreach to neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and QAnon users on the far-right platform Gab. 

Tenpenny has a history of promoting antisemitic material on social media. The following are numerous examples. 

Tenpenny promoted Jewish “bioweapon” conspiracy theory. In January 2022, Tenpenny shared a video of conspiracy theorist Lee Merritt that has the title, “Ashkenazi Jews not affected by mass sterilization through covid vaccines.” Tenpenny wrote: “Ever hear of race-specific bioweapons? A race-specific bioweapon is a bioweapon designed to affect only certain races, or genetic profiles to which certain genes are common. #Sterilization #BioWeapon #Ashkenazi.”

Tenpenny shared a video featuring someone falsely claiming that “the historical evidence is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler.” Tenpenny forwarded a post featuring Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson stating: “I believe that the historical evidence is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler. I believe there were no gas chambers.” Tenpenny’s post was uncovered by the Center for Countering Digital Hate and provided to Insider. 

Tenpenny has repeatedly criticized the removal of Holocaust denier material on social media. Tenpenny responded to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s statement that he would ban Holocaust denier content by writing: “Thank you for your honesty on your censorship decisions which remove the right to Freedom of Speech.” She has also attacked UNESCO after it criticized Holocaust denier material, writing: “UNWSCO is Calling for massive censorship on Telegram & other platforms to be in effect by 2023. #NoCensorship #FreeSpeech #SocialMedia.”

Tenpenny forwarded a post which claimed: “Since all the CEOs of the major vaccine manufacturers are Jews my questions is do these Jews get the real vaccine or saline in the publicity staged vaccine shows?” Tenpenny’s post was uncovered by the Center for Countering Digital Hate and provided to The Jewish Chronicle. 

Tenpenny praised a film promoting The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. She wrote in 2020: “*THE PLAN EXPOSED*: Janet Ossebaard's *The Protocols of Zion*.  An exact blueprint and illustration of how they took control!” The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum wrote of that publication: “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is the most notorious and widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times. Its lies about Jews, which have been repeatedly discredited, continue to circulate today, especially on the internet. The individuals and groups who have used the Protocols are all linked by a common purpose: to spread hatred of Jews.” 

The Tenpenny-endorsed video begins by stating: “The Protocols of Zion, dismissed as a hoax. But we can assure you, after months of in-depth research, that they are not. They were slightly ordered, yes, but they are not a hoax.”

Tenpenny forwarded a post that attacked “(((Ukraine)))” and “the (((WHO)))” and concluded: “Same tribe every time [Star of David emoji].” The triple parentheses is also known as an echo and is used by antisemites to identify Jewish people. Tenpenny’s post was previously reported by Mother Jones. 

Tenpenny promoted the conspiracy theory that the “Rothschilds patented the COVID-19” tests in 2015 and 2017. The claim about the Rothschilds, a Jewish family that is the subject of numerous antisemitic conspiracy theories, is false.