Independent candidate for president Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would give Black farmers $5 billion in reparations.
Kennedy made the comments during an interview with John Boyd. Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association.
"That $5 billion is not money, that is an entitlement," Kennedy said, according to the Washington Examiner. "It's money that was a loan that Black farmers were entitled to way back when and was stolen from them through discrimination."
Boyd had previously sued the Biden administration for failing to provide reparations that would have assisted socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, according to the Examiner. The money was meant for the American Rescue Plan but was blocked after white farmers said it violated their constitutional rights.
The money was later put into the Inflation Reduction Act, with $2 billion going to farmers who faced discrimination and $3 billion going to the Agriculture Department to disperse to financially struggling farmers regardless of race.
Kennedy promised to get rid of the people who held up the plan, the Examiner reported.
Last week, Kennedy's campaign announced it secured funding to fulfill ballot access in all 50 U.S. states following an $8 million donation from the candidate's running mate Nicole Shanahan.
Kennedy recently qualified for the ballot in Texas, the sixth state his campaign has qualified for, joining Utah, Michigan, California, Delaware, and Oklahoma.
His campaign said it has collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot in New Hampshire, Nevada, Hawaii, North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, and Ohio.
He recently came under fire after comments resurfaced where he compared the Tea Party movement to the Confederacy and said women should be able to get an abortion, "even if it's full-term."
Nationally, Kennedy is getting 9.6% support in the five-way polling average, according to RealClearPolitics.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.