A video of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaking on the phone with former President Donald Trump in the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt was leaked on X by Kennedy’s son Bobby this morning.
The video shows Kennedy and Trump discussing vaccines and Trump asking Kennedy to possibly do an event with his presidential campaign. Kennedy is running as an independent candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
After the video was shared, Kennedy tweeted it was recorded by an in-house videographer and should not have been taped. He also said he was “mortified” it was shared and apologized to Trump.
In the original post, Kennedy’s son said he believed calls like this should be public to show politicians’ true feelings about vaccines, and that he was upset about Trump picking Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his vice presidential choice.
He said he would gladly go to jail so the public could see the truth and then deleted it shortly after.
In the video, which was reposted on X by many users after Kennedy pulled it down, Trump is heard over the phone saying to Kennedy that he agrees with his views on vaccines. Though Kennedy now claims he is not against vaccines, he has been vocal with his anti-vaccine views in the past.
Trump tells Kennedy that “something’s wrong” with the U.S.’s vaccine system and that he wants to do “small doses” of vaccines.
“When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination, there’s like 38 different vaccines. And it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a, you know, 10 pound or 20 pound baby,” Trump said to Kennedy, echoing a claim he’s made in the past. “And then you see the baby all of a sudden starting to change radically—I’ve seen it too many times. And then you hear that it doesn’t have an impact.”
Trump then tells Kennedy he would “love” him to “do something,” seemingly with Trump’s campaign, which he said would be “so big” for Kennedy.
“We’re gonna win. We’re way ahead of the guy,” Trump said of Biden.
Trump also touched on his phone call with President Joe Biden after a lone shooter nearly killed the former president on Saturday.
“It was very nice, actually,” Trump said. “He called me, he said, ‘How did you choose to move to the right?’”
Shortly after the video was leaked, Kennedy tweeted an apology to Trump.
“When President Trump called me I was taping with an in-house videographer. I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately,” Kennedy said. “I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president.”
In May, Trump called Kennedy a “fake anti-vaxxer” while touting his personal views on not mandating the COVID-19 vaccine in schools.
Yesterday, Politico reported that the two met in Milwaukee, where Trump sought an endorsement from Kennedy, who then said he would not be dropping out of the race.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
