Our ruling

Kennedy said "President Biden is the first candidate in history, the first president in history, that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech ... to censor his opponent."

There are several factual issues with the claim. Kennedy was referring to a Biden administration official emailing Twitter in January 2021, asking the platform to remove Kennedy’s false post about the COVID-19 vaccine causing Hank Aaron’s death.

Kennedy didn’t announce his presidential candidacy for more than two years after that post, which remains live on Twitter.

Kennedy has sued the administration over its communications with social media companies. And courts are weighing whether these communications amount to censorship.

But even if someone deems the Biden administration’s actions censorship, Kennedy is wrong about history. Presidents Adams and Wilson signed sedition legislation that made it a crime to criticize the federal government. Those laws led to the prosecution of political figures, including Debs, who ran for president. Their actions also targeted the free press.

We rate this statement False.

PolitiFact Copy Chief Matthew Crowley and Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact-check.