WATCH: Scott Jennings Flattens Rolling Stone 'Journalist' in Exchange on RFK Jr. Being Given a Platform to Speak

Regardless of what one thinks of the presidential candidacy of far-left Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the display put on by Democrats on the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Thursday during a hearing that featured testimony from Kennedy was 50 shades of pathetic.

Perhaps the most ironic part was when they tried to censor Kennedy even though the whole purpose of the hearing was to highlight…the federal government using their vast powers to censor opposing views. You couldn’t make it up if you tried.

A focal point of Kennedy’s back and forth with Democrats on the subcommittee revolved around allegations that he had engaged in anti-Semitism, a charge he has strongly denied.

While opinions vary on whether or not Kennedy is guilty of one of the vilest things a politico can be accused of, things got a bit tense between Rolling Stone journalist and self-described rabbi Jay Michaelson and Republican political analyst Scott Jennings during a Thursday segment on CNN when the topic of Kennedy’s alleged anti-Semitism came up.

Michaelson, an openly gay leftist who once tried to make the case that Christianity is dying and who also who wrote an entire book he claims debunks “the myth that the Bible forbids homosexuality,” was very fauxfended by Kennedy being given such a broad platform to speak considering his alleged anti-Semitism, and insinuated that he’d never before seen anything like it:

MICHAELSON: And for him to just get out there — I mean, I admire his chutzpah, to use a Jewish term. You know, his nerve to just say these outrageous things and boldly contradict his own testimony, as Congresswoman Debra Wasserman Schultz just showed. But it’s outrageous that there is, I think, perhaps a double standard that when somebody who spouts antisemitism is useful to a party in power, they get a platform. And when someone says something which may or may not maybe sort of antisemitic, thinking, you know, the congresswoman from last week, you know, they get censured.

So, this is a shocking display, I think, of — I can’t think of someone who has espoused someone such antisemitic ideas getting such this kind of a platform. But I do have some advice as a rabbi. If you’re ever thinking about whether it’s a good idea to make a holocaust analogy, that X or Y or Z is bad for the holocaust, here’s the rabbinic advice, don’t make that analogy. We just — there are certain things that are beyond comparison. And it is absolutely offensive. Whether it’s about — I’ve heard it about gun control, I’ve heard it about COVID, I’ve heard it from people on the right and the left, all the time, you hear it just constantly, and it is offensive every time it happens.

Jennings, as you’ll see from the clip, had an astonished look on his face and for good reason, as he explained after Michaelson concluded his remarks (bolded emphasis added by me):

JENNINGS: Yeah, well, I fully agree with you, antisemitism has no place in our politics, and I don’t like it when it’s platformed. But did you also catch the news last week of the antisemitism going on in the fringe progressive caucus in the House democratic conference?

This is a pervasive problem among conspiracy theorists, but it does exist on the American left. And you do have and have had repeated episodes of antisemitism coming out of a handful of House Democrats, and they are repeatedly platformed and exalted and given positions of leadership.

MICHAELSON: Scott, (INAUDIBLE) comparison between a statement, which I think was out of line, saying Israel is a racist state. That is a political statement. It is not one that I agree with. I think it’s extreme. I’ve said it again in the column for CNN why I think that’s incorrect.

CNN’s SARA SIDNER: Let’s just be clear, Congresswoman Jayapal said this. She then — eventually, she apologized for it not long after.

MICHAELSON: And to be clear, RFK, Jr. has claimed he has apologized also and claimed he has walked it back. But to compare a sort of extreme political statement with, again, a thousand-year-old claim that Jews somehow engineered plagues to kill non-Jews, that’s a crazy false equivalence. They’re totally different.

JENNINGS: No, your statement was you had never heard of antisemitism being platformed like this in the U.S. Congress. It’s platformed every day in the democrat conference.

Boom. Watch:

On RFK Jr's House testimony, Rolling Stone's Jay Michaelson tells CNN that "I can't think of someone who has espoused someone such anti-Semitic ideas getting such this kind of a platform." Scott Jennings informs him "It's platformed every day in the Democrat conference." pic.twitter.com/qgbw8OfhFS

— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) July 21, 2023

For the record, the point here isn’t “Well y’all have anti-Semitic Dems in Congress so it should be okay that an alleged one testifies during a hearing that backs up some of what Republicans have said about government censorship.”

The point here is that if Kennedy was not someone who questioned official COVID/COVID vaccine narratives, he’d be embraced by some of the very same people on the left who are accusing him of anti-Semitism now. I mean Democrats have consistently given Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tliab passes on what I feel are pretty clear-cut cases of Democrats in positions of power openly and unapologetically espousing anti-Semitism.

But as he has often done in the past – right or wrong – Kennedy has taken a contrarian view from members of his party on a hot-button topic, being very vocal in his skepticism about the how government handled not just the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic but also the coronavirus vaccine push, two issues that as far as Democrats are concerned should be beyond questioning.

One doesn’t have to be an RFK Jr. fan (and I’m not) to see what’s going on here. In my opinion, the Democrat opposition to Kennedy speaking on that Thursday panel had very little to do with alleged anti-Semitism and had everything to do with trying to silence a critic (again) for daring to stray from official narratives. Period.