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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apologized to Donald Trump on Tuesday after a portion of a phone call between the two men was leaked to social media by Kennedy’s son on Sunday. What were the two presidential candidates talking about? The assassination attempt against Trump on Saturday, the “tough” gun used during the shooting, and the supposed danger of childhood vaccinations.
“When President Trump called me I was taping with an in-house videographer. I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately,” Kennedy wrote on X Tuesday. “I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president.”
The video clip, which is roughly 1 minute and 40 seconds long, appears to have been recorded off another screen, strongly suggesting Kennedy’s son recorded it off a video monitor in order to post it to social media. The clip starts with Trump talking about the potential dangers of vaccines, a pet issue for Kennedy, who has spent much of his adult life falsely claiming that vaccines cause autism in children.
“I agree with you, man. Something’s wrong with that whole system,” Trump can be heard saying from the start of the video.
Kennedy replies with “yeah” before Trump continues with, “…and it’s the doctors you find. Remember I said I want to do small doses. Small doses.”
“When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a… you know, 10-pound or 20-pound baby, it looks like you’re giving… you should be giving a horse this thing, and do you ever see the size of it?” Trump can be heard saying. “It’s massive 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, right? But you and I talked about that a long time ago.”
There’s also a moment when Trump seems to suggest Kennedy would be doing something “big” with Trump’s campaign, though it’s not clear what the former president is referring to. The speculation, of course, is that Kennedy would join Trump in some capacity if he retakes power.
“Anyway, I would love you to do something and I think it would be so good for you, and so big for you,” Trump says in the video clip. “And we’re gonna win. We’re gonna win. We’re way ahead of the guy.”
A video of Trump’s call with RFK Jr. was leaked – Trump talks about vaccines, tells RFK Jr. doing something with him would be “big,” mentioned his call with Biden and said the bullet was like “the world’s largest mosquito.”
RFK Jr apologized for the leak. pic.twitter.com/Z6DQ955P6W
— Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) July 16, 2024
Trump can also be heard talking with Kennedy about the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday and appears to be talking about the phone call President Joe Biden made to Trump.
“He was very nice actually. He called and he said, ‘How did you choose to move to the right?,’” Trump said. “I said, ‘I was just showing a chart.’ I didn’t have to tell him the chart was on all the people pouring into our country, right?”
“I just turned my head to show the chart and something rapped me,” Trump continues. “And it sounds like a giant… like the world’s largest mosquito. And, uh, it was. It was a bullet going round. What do they call it? An AR-15 or something. That was a big gun. That’s a pretty tough gun.”
Kennedy’s son deleted the video “within hours,” according to CNN, but it was originally posted with the caption, “I am a firm believer that these sorts of conversations should be had in public. Here’s Trump giving his real opinion to my dad about vaccinating kids – this was the day after the assassination attempt.” There are claims on X that the video was first posted to Instagram before being deleted but Gizmodo couldn’t independently verify that.
There are also claims on X that Kennedy intended for this video to leak, pointing to the fact that he can be seen using the speakerphone feature with the phone away from his face. But NBC reporter Brandy Zadrozny, who specializes in conspiracy theories and misinformation online, points out that Kennedy actually holds the phone like that because he believes phone signals could give him tumors in his head. Kennedy said as much during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast back in June, as Zadrozny notes on X.
Also seeing a lot of folks saying Kennedy MEANT for this to be leaked by his son because of the way he’s using speaker phone, but to be fair to Mr. Kennedy, he does this exclusively because he (despite a lack of scientific evidence) is afraid that holding the cell phone to his… https://t.co/8lDULPFJYH pic.twitter.com/KpMaYkX4A1
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) July 16, 2024
The Democrats released a statement on Tuesday pointing out that Trump says “we” when talking to Kennedy, a suggestion that the independent presidential candidate is actually working to help elect Trump in November.
“RFK Jr. was recruited to run by MAGA Republicans, his candidacy is funded by MAGA’s biggest donor, and now we learn he’s colluding with MAGA to help Donald Trump win. He has no path to victory in this race and is nothing more than a spoiler for Trump,” DNC communications adviser Lis Smith said in an emailed statement.
Trump met with Kennedy at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Monday to ask for Kennedy’s endorsement, according to Politico. But Kennedy still denies that he has any plans to drop out of the race and endorse Trump.
Notably, longtime Trump advisor Steve Bannon was one of the first people to promote Kennedy’s campaign in 2023, though there are still questions about whether RFK Jr. is taking more votes from Trump or Biden. Trump currently leads Biden 42.4% to 40.3% in the latest polling average from FiveThirtyEight. Kennedy is polling at 9%, a number that’s been fairly consistent for months.
Neither Kennedy’s campaign nor Trump’s campaign immediately responded to emailed questions on Tuesday. Gizmodo will update this post if we hear back.
