Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his family’s authorization to wiretap Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. He said that they had no political alternative but were betting on the civil rights movement.
The FBI conducted a sustained campaign of surveillance and harassment against the Civil Rights movement, including mail opening, wiretapping, and bugging of King’s office and hotel rooms.
RFK Jr. said President Kennedy was aware of the eavesdropping and would have fired FBI director J. Edgar Hoover if not assassinated.
Kennedy Jr., now running as an independent to become president, said there was little political alternative then during an interview with Politico published Sunday.
He also said powerful FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wanted King surveilled in 1963 and that his father and others feared political revenge if they didn’t comply.
Hoover was known for his ability to get even.
RFK Jr. also suggested that wire-tapping King in the early 1960s would prove he wasn’t a communist, as Hoover suspected.
Jackie Kennedy was quoted as saying she thought Dr. King was a communist. MLK had allies who were communists.
The recordings were taken shortly after JFK’s assassination.
“If you asked her what she thought of Martin Luther King overall… she admired him tremendously,” Caroline Kennedy told ABC’s Diane Sawyer.
MLK Jr.’s peaceful and courageous movement for equal rights and freedom is what he is best remembered for accomplishing. He was a blessing at a terrible time for black people. They suffered through slavery, and were building lives for themselves when Democrat Dixiecrats insisted on the disgusting policies of segregation – Jim Crow = which brought them down. Someone had to change the situation and MLK did it peacefully. He was about not seeing race or religion or gender. That was his vision, and if he were alive today, I want to believe it would still be his vision.
Republicans helped get the 1964 Civil Rights passed despite the Dixiecrats. We need to still be those people.
You can comment on the article after the ads and subscribe to the Daily Newsletter here if you would like a quick view of the articles of the day and any late news:
RFK has big contradictions in these statements.
A decent leader would be talking about the border invasion, but this spoiled brat is obsessed with his family instead. This looks very bad to I.
He admits MLK was spied on for political reasons. But JFK never fired Hoover though he had cause. That does not appear to be a moral family.
The spying on MLK may have provided the information used to kill MLK. The alleged assassin could not have known MLK’s movements, but the government knew where MLK was at all times.
The spying going on now dwarfs the spying back then, for context. How about RFK criticize the current spying instead of trying to color his family history?
This reminds me of RFK’s claim that his father would have uncovered the plot to kill JFK, and JFK was going to take care of the CIA. RFK senior, the USA AG, did NOT investigate the murder of his brother. JFK did NOT take care of the CIA or Hoover. All I hear from RFK are rich boy promises.