A leaked video of a phone conversation between third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump shows the former president expressing doubts about vaccines and recounting the assassination attempt on him and his subsequent phone conversation with President Biden.
Kennedy's son, Bobby Kennedy III, appears to have posted the roughly two-minute video to Twitter on Tuesday morning. Kennedy's son later deleted the tweet, but it was not before other accounts reposted the video, which he claims was filmed on Sunday, the day after the assassination attempt on President Trump.
After the assassination attempt, Trump said he agreed with RFK Jr. on vaccines.
“I agree with you, there is something wrong with this whole system, and the problem is the doctor you found.
Remember when I said I wanted to feed him in small amounts? Small amounts. When you feed your baby, Bobby,… pic.twitter.com/gDpYUuNTjQ
— End Tribalism in Politics (@EndTribalism) July 16, 2024
Kennedy has made a conspiratorial worldview a central part of his political campaign, including spreading misleading claims that vaccines are harmful, while Trump oversaw the early US response to the coronavirus pandemic and the federal government's development of the first vaccine for the virus.
In the video, Kennedy can be seen standing in a room decorated with an American flag, holding up his iPhone and listening intently to Trump speaking on speakerphone.
As the recording begins, Trump can be heard saying, “I agree with you, there's something wrong with this whole system. The problem is the doctors that you find.”
“Remember I said, 'I want a little dose. I want a little dose,'” Trump added, repeating comments he made about childhood vaccines during a 2015 debate.
“When you vaccinate a baby, Bobby, you're giving him 38 different vaccines, and it's like they're for the horse, not for a 10- or 20-pound baby.”
“You and I talked about that a long time ago,” Trump said, referring to a similar past conversation with Kennedy, who has regularly launched personal attacks on him during the campaign. Kennedy responded, “Yeah,” but that was the only time he spoke on the video.
Trump and Kennedy met in Milwaukee on Monday, just hours before Trump formally became the Republican nominee. The meeting sparked numerous rumors that Kennedy tried to quell in a tweet later that day.
“Our main agenda is national unity and I would like to meet with Democratic leaders on that issue,” he wrote. “No, I am not dropping out of the race.”
The Biden administration announced on Monday that President Biden had instructed the U.S. Secret Service to provide protection for Kennedy in the wake of the assassination attempt on President Trump, a directive President Trump had issued in a social media post the same day.
During his call with Kennedy, Trump also spoke about his near-death experience, saying the bullet “felt like the biggest mosquito in the world.”
“It was, how do you say it, an AR-15 or something, a big gun,” added Trump, who made his first convention appearance Monday night with a large white bandage covering his ear.
Trump also reflected on his call with Biden after the shooting, saying it was “actually very good.”
He said he told the president he'd turned to him at the right time as he showed him a graph of immigration numbers at the rally, adding: “I didn't need to tell him that this graph represents all the people coming into our country.”
The video began circulating on social media on Tuesday morning, and Kennedy issued an apology in a tweet.
“I was recording with our in-house videographer when President Trump called me,” he wrote. “I should have instructed the videographer to stop recording immediately. I am embarrassed that this post was posted and I apologize to the President.”
