Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised black farmers he would make good on a $5 billion reparations plan that was watered down after white farmers complained it infringed on their constitutional rights.
RFK Jr., speaking on his podcast with John Boyd Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association, promised to “get rid” of the people who held up the plan.
“That $5 billion is not money, that is an entitlement,” he told Boyd. “It’s money that was a loan that black farmers were entitled to way back when and was stolen from them through discrimination.”
Boyd sued President Joe Biden‘s administration for failing to provide reparations listed in a relief package that would’ve assisted people of color and “socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers” in the agriculture industry.
The money did not make it to the farmers due to the package, part of the American Rescue Plan, stalling in the courts, with white farmers saying the relief violated their constitutional rights.
Boyd said in the lawsuit that “they broke their promise to black farmers and other farmers of color.” The plan would have paid back “up to 120 percent of direct or guaranteed farm loan balances for black, American Indian, Hispanic, Asian American or Pacific Islander farmers.”
Former President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again Inc. blasted the statements by citing a New York Post article in an email describing the story.
“Any public official who thinks it is the government’s role to pick winners and losers based on the color of their skin does not belong in public office,” Gene Hamilton, America First Legal executive director and general counsel, told the New York Post in the article cited by Trump’s team.
The proposition was later placed into the Inflation Reduction Act, as the $5 billion was split up into a $2 billion fund for farmers who have faced discrimination and $3 billion to the Agriculture Department to distribute to farmers financially struggling regardless of race.
Several legal challenges led to the change as leaders feared it could stall the efforts for years. A spokesperson for the Agriculture Department said the agency was “moving aggressively to implement these provisions.”
Kennedy’s statement is a likely attempt to appeal to black voters in an area Trump has refused to address in the past: reparations. Trump said, “I don’t see it happening,” in response to a question about reparations in 2019.
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“I think it’s a very unusual thing,” Trump said of the possibility of reparations. “You have a lot of — it’s been a very interesting debate. I don’t see it happening, no.”
Kennedy is polling at a 9.8% national average and is seeking to land a spot at the June 26 debate between Biden and Trump on CNN.