“I have never, ever suggested that the Covid-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews,” Kennedy wrote.

Instead, Kennedy claimed, he had meant to express his belief that the United States and other governments were developing “ethnically targeted bioweapons,” broadly citing a 2021 study on genetic susceptibility to Covid-19 as “proof of concept” that such bioweapons could be created.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) lambasted Kennedy’s comments on Saturday morning, calling him “a complete crackpot who has no business being anywhere near the presidency.”

“Hard to imagine a son who has done more to dishonor his father’s name than RFK Jr,” Torres wrote on Twitter.

Kennedy has been publicly criticized by members of his own family for his stance on vaccines, and his sister, Rory Kennedy, and cousin, Patrick Kennedy, both declined to support his longshot bid for the presidency.

The press dinner on Tuesday — which came as Kennedy struggles to continue some momentum in early polls — first made headlines not because of Kennedy’s vaccine comments, but because of a so-called “war of words and farts” that reportedly broke out among attendees over a disagreement on climate change.