Decentralize with Cointelegraph

RFK Jr: Why America should buy Bitcoin

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. • Season 1 • Episode 36

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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explains why integrating Bitcoin into US reserves is the only way to preserve the dominance of the US dollar and address other economic issues affecting the country. He also shares how he first discovered Bitcoin and why he passionately supports it.

Watch the interview on Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel.

Follow Cointelegraph on X @Cointelegraph.
Follow this episode’s hosts, Gareth Jenkinson and Sam Bourgi, on X at @gazza_jenks and @forgeforth_

Timestamps:
(00:00) - Introduction to the episode
(00:41) - Kennedy’s introduction to Bitcoin
(03:35) - Сhanging perceptions of Bitcoin among policymakers
(05:15) - Integration of Bitcoin into the US economy

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast are its participants’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph. This podcast (and any related content) is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, nor should it be taken as such. Everyone must do their own research and make their own decisions. The podcast’s participants may or may not own any of the assets mentioned.

[00:00:09] Gareth Jenkinson: Hi there, and welcome back to another episode of Decentralize with Cointelegraph. This interview features a one-on-one with Robert Kennedy Jr. Filmed during the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville. Kennedy was in the running as a presidential candidate ahead of the US elections but has since suspended his campaign.

In this conversation with Cointelegraph’s US news editor, Sam Bourgi, Kennedy explains why integrating Bitcoin into US government reserves could help preserve the dominance of the US dollar.

[00:00:40] Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: I heard about Bitcoin from my kids. I’ve got seven kids, and they were, a bunch of them were kind of college-age and interested in finance, and they’re very entrepreneurial. And so they had gotten in small ways into Bitcoin very early. And for me, it was kind of just a novelty, and I didn’t understand much about it. And then I was involved in the trucker strike in Canada. And during that period, I saw what happened. This was a very peaceful protest, people exercising freedoms that we take for granted in this country, freedom of assembly. They were protesting some of the economic impacts of the mandates. It was like a Woodstock-like crowd. It was very diverse and very kind.

Yet the Canadian government portrayed it publicly as kind of a terrorist reunion, and they began using technologies like facial recognition systems to identify people who were participating and then freezing their bank accounts. They froze a $12 million PayPal account. And at that point, I was in shock because none of these people had been charged with a crime. None of them had been, of course, convicted. And yet the government was shutting down their bank accounts so they couldn’t pay for their diesel, they couldn’t pay for their kids’ food, they couldn’t make their rent, couldn’t pay for their mortgages. And, you know, one trucker told me that he was going to jail because he couldn’t pay its alimony.

And I realized at that time that transactional freedom was as important as freedom of expression that is protected by the First Amendment. If we didn’t figure out a mechanism for guaranteeing transactional freedom, that we were headed to a really dystopian world where the government could turn us into slaves. Because if the government can punish its critics, silence its critics by throwing them out of their homes or starving their children, it has license for every atrocity. We become slaves. And Bitcoin became, for me, the extraordinarily elegant solution to so many of our problems. It became an off-ramp for inflation and a hedge against inflation, an off-ramp from these existential deficits we’re now suffering. It’s a way to challenge the war machine because the war machine is funded just on printing money, you know, without even asking permission. It’s a guarantee of personal freedoms, of responsibility, of self-sovereignty. It’s also a way to guarantee fair and free elections. The blockchain, that can’t be tampered with, or protects democracy in that way. It’s a weapon as well, a defensive weapon against cyberattack, the most potent weapon against the cyberattack. And the more excited, it’s essentially optimistic nature that it promotes entrepreneurship, promotes innovation, it promotes freedom. And I’m just like a very, very optimistic future, which we badly need today.

[00:03:35] Sam Bourgi: And I saw your keynote last year at Bitcoin Miami. And I want to bring that up because the tone around Bitcoin seems to have changed drastically over the past year. Can you kind of explain how the shift is happening on Capitol Hill in Washington? Why are now policymakers suddenly seem to be more understanding and open to Bitcoin?

[00:03:54] Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: I think there’s 60 million Bitcoiners in our country, and they’re very energetic, and they’ve been able to talk to their legislature. So now, a majority of people in Congress and the Senate wanna see Bitcoin transactional. They want to see it untaxable. They want to encourage it. They want to end the war. And the Biden administration, either knowingly or through inertia, has been locked in war with Bitcoin. And Chairman Gensler is very, very hostile to Bitcoin personally. And they’ve put it in the way every impediment to it. But I think Bitcoin crossed a tipping point this year. I think a year ago, nobody would consider Bitcoin inevitable.

I think now it’s past the point where it’s inevitable, and now we need to move as a country that’s able to get some control over Bitcoin as part of a largest reserve is that’s going to control the world. And so, if we want to continue with having the world’s global reserve currency, the world’s global preferred trade currency, and the world’s safe haven currency, we need to move quickly to integrate Bitcoin into our reserves and the world. And that will launch a cascading effect that is going to happen, all these extraordinary benefits for our country.

[00:05:15] Sam Bourgi: You recently mentioned Bitcoin being honest currency or honest money. And we can’t say the same thing about the US dollar or any other fiat currency and the role that the Fed has played in debasing the currency. I know you’ve talked about it a lot. How can Bitcoin potentially fix the Fed? The Fed has a dual mandate of, you know, supporting the economy and also supporting price stability. Well, they’ve kind of gaslit all of us in since 2021. And they said there’s no inflation. Well, it was the biggest inflation spike in 40 years. So, what role do you think Bitcoin can play with respect to the Fed and making the Fed’s job better and making them more honest at what they do?

[00:05:49] Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: I think we need to link at least some of our Treasury bills and some of our notes to hard currency, and that would include Bitcoin. I think Bitcoin is the most efficient because it is the perfect money. It’s transactional across the globe. I mean, if you imagine what it will do if we link the dollar to it, it will guarantee the future of the dollar. It is permanent reserve currency in the globe because everybody wants dollars. If you live in China, if you live in Russia, your wealth can be confiscated anytime by tyrannical leaders.

So, all the people who have wealth in those countries would rather have their wealth in the United States. That’s why you see the Chinese buying up real estate, etc., any kind of hard assets. But, and Bitcoin is a hard asset, but it’s hard to buy real estate in the United States. But if you could buy Bitcoin, if you could do it on your cellphone, if you could do it when person-to-person transactions, with no friction. In other words, no fees, no banks, bank accounts, you can just do it person to person. It frees the flow of money all over the world, and that money is going to flow towards the United States. Those assets, that wealth, will flow back into our country because everybody wants to put their money, and that will fix our, among other things, our balance of payments. It also, if you tie it to the dollar, it injects discipline into the Fed. We’re going to do other things to fix the Fed, too. It makes it so they can’t just engage in this orgy of money printing with no consequence and no tie to reality. And you know, if we are the first movers on Bitcoin and we get 4 million Bitcoins, it would cost us around $750 billion to do that, but within a few years, that’s going to be worth $100 trillion. And that money will generate wealth every year, enough to neutralize our budget deficits. That’s how you get rid of this extraordinary, this existential debt. So, it’s an elegant solution for almost everything.

[00:07:52] Sam Bourgi: Do you think a lot of the damage has already been done? We see a lot of companies that have moved overseas and that are not looking at the US with the same optimism they once did. How big is that threat that we lose blockchain innovation, Bitcoin innovation going overseas?

[00:08:04] Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: I think we could get it back. We change policy. People would rather be in this country. People would rather be here mainly than Switzerland or Dubai or Singapore. And you know, there’s a lot of still trust in the US government, and I think this will make the government more trustworthy. And it will encourage people to want to move wealth and business here.

[00:08:26] Sam Bourgi: And thank you.

[00:08:27] Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Alright, thank you.

[00:08:28] Sam Bourgi: Thank you so much.

[00:08:29] Gareth Jenkinson: Thanks again for listening to this episode of Decentralize with Cointelegraph. If you enjoyed this content, make sure you like, subscribe and share. We look forward to welcoming you back for our next episode.

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