Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed papers with the United States Federal Election Commission on April 5 to run as the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, according to various news reports. He is expected to officially announce his candidacy on April 19 in Boston, Massachusetts. As news of his candidacy spread, Kennedy tweeted his position on central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Kennedy, the nephew of US President John F. Kennedy and son of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, is an environmental lawyer who gained notoriety as an anti-vaccine activist. If he ran for the Oval Office, he would challenge the incumbent, Joe Biden, also a Democrat.
Also on April 5, Kennedy posted a tweet about the perceived dangers of CBDC. Although CBDC is becoming an increasingly political issue in the United States, Kennedy’s statement stood out for its candor. There was also some factual confusion.
The Fed just announced it will introduce its “FedNow” Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in July. CBDCs grease the slippery slope to financial slavery and political tyranny.
While cash transactions are anonymous, a #CBDC will allow the government tosurveil all our private…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 5, 2023
“The Federal Reserve has just announced that it will introduce its central bank digital currency (CBDC) ‘FedNow’ in July,” Kennedy began. Although the Federal Reserve said it will launch the FedNow instant payments system in July, it will not be a CBDC and is often seen as a competitor to a possible future government-backed CBDC.
The Federal Reserve has repeatedly stated that it would only issue a CBDC with a mandate from Congress.
In line with many opponents of the CBDC, Kennedy paints the worst-case scenario of a “CBDC tied to digital ID and social credit score,” ignoring the many design options for a privacy-protecting CBDC. The introduction of FedNow “is the first step to ban and seize Bitcoin like the Treasury did gold 90 years ago today, in 1933,” he concludes.
Kennedy is by no means the only one opposed to CBDC. However, many opponents of the CBDC are on the right. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who many expect to run in the 2024 presidential race, declared in a speech that “Central bank-issued digital currency is about policing Americans and controlling their behavior.” Republican Rep. Tom Emmer introduced the Anti-Surveillance State Act with a CBDC in Congress in February. Senator Ted Cruz has also introduced a bill to block the development of a retail CBDC.
Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is running for re-election on a strong anti-cryptocurrency platform. She is possibly the outspoken opponent of cryptocurrency in the US Congress, but she has expressed her support for a CBDC. In light of her intention to announce her candidacy in Boston and her family’s strong ties to the state, Kennedy also seems likely to run for Massachusetts.
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