Russell Brand had found his people, that much was clear. Last Saturday, in front of 800 fans in a hotel ballroom in Austin, the comedian doled out praise for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (whom he called “Great Brother Kennedy”), disdain for the medical establishment (“flat-out evil”), and gratitude for Jesus Christ (“Thank God we have a forgiving God that died for us”). He also told a bunch of dick jokes and, later, called me a Nazi.
After the show, I’d asked Brand for an interview, and he told me that the media are “Luciferian,” and that reporters are Nazis. “Do you really think that?” I asked him. “You’re more like an individual Nazi,” he said, seemingly a concession that I was just following orders. (I didn’t get the interview.)
Brand and his fans had gathered for the annual conference of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit founded in 2018 by the current secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy wasn’t there, but the movement’s other headliners were. Brand—who is awaiting trial for rape and sexual assault in the U.K. and has pleaded not guilty—was onstage with Kennedy’s wife, Cheryl Hines, to promote her memoir. Her publisher, Tony Lyons, was there in his role as president of MAHA Action, a nonprofit that holds weekly Zoom calls to galvanize support for Ke
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