Trump makes anti-Vax comments in phone call with RFK Jr.

DOnald Trump expressed skepticism about vaccines in a private phone conversation with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Former President Trump and Kennedy spoke at the start of the Republican convention, where Trump was officially named the Republican Party’s nominee for the third consecutive cycle. A video of the call was posted online by someone in Kennedy’s orbit. In the video, Trump expresses concerns about vaccinating children, which, according to him, can cause babies to “change radically”.

“You feed a baby… a vaccination that has about 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s for a horse, not a 10- or 20-pound baby… And then you see the baby suddenly starting to radically change,” Trump told Kennedy. “And then you hear that it has no impact, right?” Trump adds that he and Kennedy talked about vaccines “a long time ago.”

Kennedy apologized for the leak on Tuesday morning, posting on social media platform X that he was filming with a cameraman at the time of the call and “should have ordered the cameraman to stop recording immediately,” he wrote. “I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president.” When asked for comment, the Trump campaign referred TIME to Kennedy’s social media post.

The topic of conversation shouldn’t surprise voters who understand both candidates’ tense history of comments on vaccines. Trump was president at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and oversaw the federal effort to support vaccine development. But he defended misleading vaccine claims and politicized vaccine mandates.

As president, Trump touted his administration’s success in quickly rolling out a coronavirus vaccine to combat the pandemic. “From the moment the coronavirus invaded our shores, we sprang into action to develop a safe and effective vaccine at breakneck speed. Normally it would take five years, six years, seven years or even more,” Trump said in December 2020. In 2021, he called COVID-19 vaccines “one of humanity’s greatest achievements.”

However, Trump also refused to take the vaccine on national television. After revealing that he received a booster shot in December 2021 during the final stop of “The History Tour,” a talk show Trump was doing with Bill O’Reilly, Trump was booed by the public in Dallas.

Kennedy is a well-known vaccine conspiracy theorist who has repeatedly made false claims about vaccines causing autism — despite studies showing that there is no correlation between vaccination and autism. Research also shows that vaccines help build herd immunity and protect the body against disease. In 2021, Kennedy called the COVID-19 vaccine is the “deadliest vaccine ever made.” Kennedy served as chairman of the board of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy group (although he is currently removed from that role while he runs for president). Kennedy also previously suggested that his spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder that can affect voice and speech, is a side effect of the flu vaccine.

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In 2017, Kennedy said Trump offered him the opportunity to chair a commission that would investigate “vaccine safety and scientific integrity.” by CNBC. However, Trump’s transition team later said there had been no formal decision made to form a commission or let Kennedy lead it. On the recent call, Trump said he would “love” Kennedy to “do something” with his campaign. “It would be so good for you and so big for you,” Trump said.