Former presidential Republican candidate Donald Trump (left) and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
Reuters
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump repeated false conspiracy theories about childhood vaccinations in a recent call with third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to a video of the call that leaked on Tuesday.
Trump can be heard saying, after receiving Vaccines to protect babies from life-threatening diseases“You’ll see the baby suddenly start to change dramatically.”
The video also shows Trump telling his ostensible rival, “I hope you can do something. I think it would be very good for you and it would mean a lot to you.”
When Trump added that “we’re going to win” the election, Kennedy replied: “Yes.”
It’s unclear what Trump advised Kennedy to do. A spokesman for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for clarification on the leaked conversation, which Kennedy confirmed late Tuesday morning.
But the footage provides more evidence to Biden supporters who accuse Kennedy of running a damaging campaign that could benefit Trump in November.
The 98-second video, posted online and later deleted by Kennedy’s son, Bobby Kennedy III, captures Trump’s voice as independent presidential candidate Kennedy holds a cellphone. vaccine conspiracy theorists and purveyors of vaccine disinformation.
“I agree with you,” Trump said at the beginning of the video. “There’s something wrong with the whole system.”
“Remember how I said, ‘I want to do low doses, low doses.’ When you give vaccines to babies, Bobby, it’s like 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s for horses,” Trump said.
“Not a 10-pound baby or a 20-pound baby. It looks like you’re giving, you should be giving to a horse. You’ve seen the size of it, right? It’s this big, and then you see the whole baby suddenly starts to undergo fundamental changes I’ve seen change so many times and then you hear it has no impact, right?
“So big and then you see the baby suddenly start to change radically,” Trump claimed. “I’ve seen it so many times and then you hear it has no impact, right? “
Unfounded doubts about the safety of childhood vaccinations and online disinformation contribute to declining childhood vaccination levels in the United States Decline in recent yearsa trend that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kennedy III said the call came a day after Trump was assassinated at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. The video clip does not appear to show the entire call.
Trump told Kennedy that President Joe Biden was “very nice” during a phone call after the shooting in which Trump suffered minor injuries and a rally attendee was killed.
Trump told Kennedy the bullets whizzing past his head sounded “like the biggest mosquito in the world.”
Kennedy apologized to Trump for the leak in a post on X late Tuesday morning, saying he was “ashamed that it was posted.”
“I was recording with an in-house photographer when President Trump called me,” Kennedy wrote.
“I should order the cameraman to stop recording immediately,” he said. “I apologize to the president.”
Kennedy III originally posted the video in an
“This is Trump’s honest opinion on vaccinating his children as he expressed it to my father,” Kennedy Jr. wrote. “This is not a cheap fake or someone imitating Trump’s voice. This is the real deal,” he added. .
Kennedy III’s post continued to criticize Trump’s choice of running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, and accused him of holding pro-vaccine views.
After deleting the post, Kennedy tweeted that he was wrong about Vance. “Deleted the last one because of mistaking sarcasm for real life,” he wrote.
Trump and Kennedy met face-to-face on Monday in Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention is being held.
The Biden campaign slammed the leak, saying in a press release that “it makes sense that Trump would find common cause.” anti-vaccine extremists Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”
“Trump and his anti-vaccine bud ‘Bobby’ are spreading dangerous conspiracy theories that threaten the life-saving care tens of millions of people rely on,” Biden campaign spokesman Joe Costello said in a press release.
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