Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. repudiated accusations that he peddled a racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory about COVID-19 during a New York City dinner last week. 

In an interview with Jewish News Syndicate published Monday, Kennedy expressed regret that his controversial remarks about COVID-19 were picked up by The New York Post during what he thought was an off-the-record dinner. The Post first reported video showing Kennedy discussing an argument that the coronavirus is ‘ethnically targeted’ to ‘attack Caucasians and black people’ while sparing ‘Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.’ His comments created an uproar and were condemned by Jewish groups, the White House and even members of the Kennedy family. 

‘I made a statement in a meeting that was presented to us as Chatham House rules, as a closed meeting,’ Kennedy told JNS. ‘I made an accurate statement about an NIH-funded study. I regret ever talking about that now because it’s clear that even accurate facts will be distorted and misconstrued in ways that hurt people.’

‘The last thing I want to do is be hurtful to people, particularly Jewish people, who have already suffered more than any other race,’ he added.

In the lengthy interview, Kennedy was emphatic that he is not an antisemite. 

‘The worst two accusations that anybody can make about you are that you’re an antisemite or a pedophile,’ he said. ‘I don’t think there’s anything worse.’  

Kennedy told the outlet that an affection and affinity for Israel is ‘part of the DNA of our family,’ pointing to his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and father, Robert F. Kennedy, a former U.S. attorney general and senator, who strongly supported Israel.

Kennedy pledged to continue that legacy if elected president and said, ‘It’s been a great disappointment and troubling development to me that the Democratic Party has drifted away from its traditions.’

He also said that moving forward, he will be more cautious before speaking in public. 

‘It’s clear to me now that I need to be much more careful,’ Kennedy told JNS.

‘I have to learn a lesson from this, and the lesson I learn is that I have to understand that the words that I use have impact, and they can be misused and misinterpreted,’ he said. ‘I regret talking about that study, and I am going to be careful to make sure that I don’t do anything like that in the future.’

Kennedy’s controversial remarks included the Democratic presidential candidate saying he did not know whether the virus was ‘deliberately targeted or not,’ but that there were ‘papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact’ on different groups.

‘There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,’ he said. ‘COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.’

According to the Post, Kennedy also claimed the Chinese ‘are spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing ethnic bioweapons,’ and that the U.S. was also ‘developing ethnic bioweapons.’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ripped his comments as ‘false,’ ‘vile’ and said they ‘put our fellow Americans in danger.’ Kennedy’s nephew, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, said his uncle’s comments were ‘hurtful and wrong,’ while his sister Kerry Kennedy condemned them as ‘deplorable and untruthful.’ 

After the Post story broke, Kennedy attempted to clarify his remarks on social media, calling the Post’s story ‘mistaken’ and linking a study detailing the different effects COVID-19 had on people of different races to support his claims.

‘I accurately pointed out — during an off-the-record conversation — that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021 study of the COVID-19 virus shows that COVID-19 appears to disproportionately affect certain races since the furin cleave docking site is most compatible with Blacks and Caucasians and least compatible with ethnic Chinese, Finns and Ashkenazi Jews,’ he said. 

Kennedy also responded to his family, telling Fox News Digital, ‘The reactions of these family members are based on the New York Post’s misreporting and willful mischaracterization of what I said. This is an example of how the media manipulates Americans into turning against one another. Fortunately, I am sure that the love within our family will prevail over these attempts to divide us. May the same be true for the country.’ 

Kennedy described his long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination as a ‘mass experiment in truth-telling’ and told JNS he will attempt to maintain his personal integrity and a ‘clear conscience’ on the campaign trail. 

‘Ultimately, the success of this venture is in God’s hands, and the only thing I have control over is the little piece of real estate inside of my own shoes,’ he said. ‘My biggest objective is to end this process with my integrity intact. My second objective is to get elected president of the United States.’

Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie and Kathleen Joyce contributed to this report. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., caused a stir when she held up several graphic photos from Hunter Biden’s laptop during a committee hearing Wednesday with IRS whistleblowers alleging misconduct in investigations into the Biden family.

The House Oversight Committee interviewed two IRS whistleblowers alleging political misconduct throughout the Hunter Biden investigation — Special Agent Joseph Ziegler, whose identity was revealed during the hearing, and his IRS supervisor Gary Shapley.

Shapley previously blew the whistle on alleged political influence surrounding prosecutorial decisions throughout the years-long federal probe into President Biden’s son.

Ziegler testified Wednesday that Hunter Biden itemized a $10,000 deduction on his 2018 tax return for a supposed golf club membership that was really a sex club membership and that he wrote off payments to prostitutes as business expenses.

‘So, I can tell you that there were deductions for what we believe to be escorts. And then that $10,000 golf club membership. Yes, that was not a golf club membership, that was for a sex club payment,’ Ziegler told Greene.

Greene held up censored nude photos taken from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop and addressed Ziegler. 

‘So, when Hunter Biden paid for this woman to do this with him, to travel across state lines from California to Washington, D.C., on June 15, this is a violation of the Mann Act. This was prostitution,’ Greene said.

‘This is evidence of Hunter Biden making sex — excuse me, this is my time – making pornography,’ she said holding up another photo, as Democrats objected.

One member interjected that showing the pictures was ‘unbecoming of this hearing,’ and another asked, ‘Should we be displaying this … in the committee?’

Greene’s time ran out after she was interrupted.

Ziegler, who identified himself as a gay Democrat with more than a dozen years serving within the IRS’ criminal investigative division, appeared for the first time publicly Wednesday, while Shapley testified to the House Ways and Means Committee last month.

The whistleblowers allege that officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered in the investigation into Hunter Biden and that decisions in the case were influenced by politics.

An IRS whistleblower who came forward to testify before Congress on Wednesday confirmed claims by House Republicans that Hunter Biden and his companies raked in over $17 million from foreign sources over several years, beginning while his father was vice president.

The House Oversight Committee interviewed two IRS whistleblowers alleging political misconduct throughout the Hunter Biden investigation: special agent Joseph Ziegler, whose identity was revealed during the hearing, and his IRS supervisor Gary Shapley, who previously blew the whistle on alleged political influence surrounding prosecutorial decisions throughout the years-long federal probe into the president’s son.

Ziegler told Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., that Hunter Biden, his family members and business associates received over $17 million due to business dealings in China, Ukraine and Romania.

Those deals included multimillion-dollar payments to Biden family-linked companies from 2014 to 2019, including $7.3 million from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.

‘This brings the total amount of foreign income streams received to approximately $17 million, correct?’ Comer asked Ziegler.

‘That is correct,’ Ziegler responded.

‘The purpose of documenting the foreign sources is part of a normal international tax investigation,’ Ziegler said. ‘We have to figure out where the money is coming from.’

Comer argued the foreign payments demonstrate an ‘influence-peddling scheme to enrich the Bidens.’

‘Despite creating many companies after vice president took office, the Biden family used associates companies to receive millions of dollars from foreign companies in China, Ukraine and Romania after foreign companies sent money to business associates companies,’ the chairman said. ‘The Bidens then received incremental payments over time to various different bank accounts. These complicated financial transactions were used deliberately to conceal the source of funds and total amounts. No normal business operates like this.’

Ziegler, who identified himself as a gay Democrat with more than a dozen years serving within the IRS’ criminal investigative division, appeared for the first time publicly Wednesday, while Shapley testified last month.

The whistleblowers allege that officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered in the investigation into Hunter Biden, and that decisions in the case were influenced by politics.

With hundreds of migrants arriving daily, New York City will start giving adult asylum seekers in the city’s shelter system 60 days notice to find somewhere else to live, Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday.

The new policy is intended to make room for migrant families with children, Adams said. Caseworkers will help migrants who are asked to vacate find housing and other services, he said, and those who don’t find alternative housing within 60 days will have to return to the intake center and reapply for a new placement.

‘We must now take additional steps to create urgently needed space for families with children who continue to arrive seeking asylum and help those with us take the next steps to their journey,’ Adams said at a City Hall news conference. He added, ‘Our goal is no child, no family sleeping on the streets.’

Adams, a Democrat, has scrambled to house the tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived in the city over the past year and has called for more help from the state and federal governments.

The city has rented out entire hotels to house migrants and has also put cots in schools and temporarily housed people in tents, a cruise ship terminal and a former police academy building.

Adams said more than 54,800 migrants are currently in the city’s care, with 300 to 500 more arriving daily. ‘This cannot continue,’ Adams said. ‘It’s not sustainable and we’re not going to pretend as though it is sustainable.’

Under the new policy, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said adult asylum seekers who have been in the city’s shelter system for a significant amount of time will receive their 60-day notice on a rolling basis.

‘As we continue to tackle this humanitarian crisis, we must devise novel ways of moving people within and through our system to find where they will ultimately settle,’ Williams-Isom said.

But immigration advocates said the new plan would create bureaucratic hurdles for vulnerable migrants and would violate the 1981 court order that requires the city to provide temporary housing for every homeless person who asks for it.

‘This is a bad policy that will be directly responsible for leaving families homeless and living on the streets,’ Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said in a statement. ‘The new rule is an abhorrent end run on our right to shelter laws, and does not reflect the welcoming values of New York City.’

Adams said he was not going to be deterred by potential legal challenges to the new policy.

‘The court system is going to do what the court system is going to do,’ he said.

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for installing razor wire barriers in the Rio Grande to block migrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Jean-Pierre made the comments during a White House press briefing on Wednesday, saying Abbott’s decision was ‘atrocious’ and ‘inhumane.’ The White House official stopped short of saying whether President Biden had discussed the issue with the Mexican government.

‘Texas has been installing these buoys along with razor wire on the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass. Mexico is now requesting that Texas remove these barriers. They say the state is violating international treaties and that they raised this with the administration three weeks ago. Do you agree with Mexico that Texas is violating these international treaties?’ a reporter asked.

‘This governor … has treated the situation that we’re seeing at the border in an inhumane way,’ Jean-Pierre responded. ‘It is atrocious, the actions that he decides to take. He takes this [action] instead of dealing with this issue in a way that we can get to a resolution and working together, he turns it into a political stunt.’

CHINA SEEKS TO GAIN ‘FOOTHOLD’ ON AMERICA’S DOORSTEP AMID BORDER CRISIS, TOP REPUBLICAN WARNS 

‘I can’t speak to conversations three weeks ago with the Mexican government,’ she added. ‘I don’t have any information to share if that came up in a conversation.’

Mexico sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. government earlier this week saying that Texas’ deployment of floating barriers along the Rio Grande may violate treaties on boundaries and water.

Texas began rolling out the new floating barriers in early July, but migrant advocates have voiced concerns about drowning risks from the buoys. Environmentalists also questioned the impact on the river.

Abbott’s office has defended the inflatable barriers, arguing they will ‘proactively prevent illegal crossings between ports of entry by making it more difficult to cross the Rio Grande and reach the Texas side of the southern border.’

‘Texas has pushed back against the swell of migrants and held the line to keep people out of Texas — but there’s more that needs to be done,’ Abbott said last month. ‘The Texas Legislature has stepped up to make sure we continue to robustly respond to President Biden’s growing border crisis, including allocating $5.1 billion for border security.’

Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.

A Democratic member of the House Oversight Committee lost it during a heated Wednesday hearing in which two IRS whistleblowers testified the Justice Department politically interfered with an investigation into President Biden’s youngest son, Hunter Biden.

Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., spent the time he was allotted to question the whistleblowers instead railing against the committee’s focus on Hunter Biden, claiming the FBI, DOJ and IRS ‘keep this democracy in check,’ and ripping up his prepared remarks in a show of frustration.

‘Now, here’s what galls me. I don’t like these attacks on the Department of Justice, the FBI, the IRS, as if they are somehow anti-U.S. agencies. Those agencies keep this democracy in check … They provide the checks, and they provide the balances,’ Mfume said, referencing Republican members of the committee criticizing the agencies over the alleged interference into the Hunter Biden investigation.

‘We are doing this all over again for the Hunter Biden show to someone who has pleaded guilty and has taken responsibility for not filing taxes for two years. This is ludicrous. Beam me up, Scotty. There’s no intelligent life down here. None,’ he later added, appearing angry as he shredded the papers in front of him.

Before the outburst, Mfume attempted to redirect attention from the committee’s probe into Hunter Biden to the pending legal hurdles facing former President Donald Trump.

‘I want to congratulate my colleagues from across the aisle for gathering us here today, almost distracting us from the biggest investigation that is going on right now in our country and in our nation’s history involving the former president and the front-runner for the Republican nomination, who is currently facing a 37-count indictment,’ he said. 

Mfume noted the potential for Trump to face further indictments in other investigations and attempted to downplay Hunter Biden’s legal woes by arguing the latter had ‘already pleaded guilty to not filing his taxes, having a gun charge, and now I hear also paying for prostitution.’ 

He accused Trump of seeking ‘special treatment’ in his classified documents case, and called for the committee to hold a hearing on the former president’s ‘history of tax evasion.’

‘Let’s, let’s be real when we talk about this. It’s not just Hunter Biden. But as long as we’re saying Hunter Biden, we forget everything else,’ Mfume said. ‘And again, Hunter Biden did step forward and said, ‘I did not file taxes in two years. And yes, this gun charge I will take responsibility for.’’ 

The IRS whistleblowers claim there was a pattern of ‘slow-walking investigative steps’ into Hunter Biden, which included instructions not to speak with him at his residence, tipping the president’s son and staff off about the ongoing efforts and delaying enforcement actions in the months before the 2020 presidential election.

The two former agents were assigned to the federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax and gun charges. Biden ultimately pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor tax offenses as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors in a lenient deal that prompted criticism from Republican lawmakers. The hearing comes as House Republicans continue to investigate the president and his family after the DOJ failed to find evidence of criminal conduct.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.