Robert F. Kennedy III, the son of independent presidential candidate and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., posted a video on X which he claimed was hot mic footage of his dad taking a speakerphone call with former President Donald Trump, who privately agreed with much of his anti-vaccine paranoia.
Kennedy III, whose dad has for decades falsely linked vaccines to autism and said COVID-19 mandates were worse than the Holocaust, did this as an attack on Trump, to argue that he was trying to moderate his anti-vaccine stances in public when in reality he ought to be forming an anti-vaccine "unity ticket" with his father.
In the video, Trump said of vaccines, "I agree with you, man, something's wrong with that whole system" and added, "I want to do small doses, small doses ... when you feed a baby, Bobby, 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."
This lines up with past public comments Trump has made, where he also echoed the talking point that the pediatric vaccine schedule looks like it was made for a horse.
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"I am a firm believer that these sorts of conversations should be had in public," wrote Kennedy III. "Here’s Trump giving his real opinion to my dad about vaccinating kids — this was the day after the assassination attempt. If I violated some kind of law in posting this my only wish is to have Dr. Anthony Fauci as my cellmate. This is not a cheapfake or somebody doing a Trump voice. This is the real deal."
"He could have picked a unity ticket instead he picked JD 'fire all the unvaccinated nurses' Vance," Kennedy III continued furiously. "Two parties, indivisible, under Pfizer, with liberty and justice for sum [sic]."
Robert F. Kennedy III's footage of his father speaking with Trump (screenshot from X).Robert F. Kennedy III's footage of his father speaking with Trump (screenshot from X).
Kennedy III seems to be confused about the past comments made by Trump's running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH); he is also anti-vaccine and his 2022 comment that we should "fire thousands of nurses who refuse to get the vaccine" was meant to be sarcasm.
In the early days of the pandemic, despite himself promulgating years of vaccine conspiracy theories, Trump greenlit Operation Warp Speed, the federal program that fast-tracked the development of COVID-19 vaccines. However, he has shied away from taking credit for this as his party has consolidated support from anti-vaxxers, and as President Joe Biden took the responsibility of actually administering the vaccines nationwide in his first year.
