PHOENIX — PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apologized Tuesday after a video was posted online showing part of a private phone call between the independent presidential candidate and the former Republican president donald trump.
The video shows Kennedy listening on speakerphone as Trump shares debunked claims about childhood vaccines, an issue that helped Kennedy rack up a loyal followers among people who reject scientific consensus that the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risk of rare complications. Trump also appears to convince Kennedy to endorse his campaign.
“I would love for you to do that,” Trump told Kennedy. “And I think it will be very good and great for you. And we will win.”
Kennedy says little in the leaked excerpt of the conversation, which begins while Trump is already talking about vaccines.
“When President Trump called me, I was recording with an in-house videographer,” Kennedy wrote on Platform X. “I should have ordered the cameraman to stop recording immediately. I’m mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president.”
The video was first posted by Kennedy’s son, Robert F. Kennedy III, who said it was recorded on Sunday, the day after Trump was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania and the day before the start of the Republican National Convention. It was deleted shortly afterwards, but copies continue to circulate on social media.
A spokeswoman for Kennedy, Stefanie Spear, said Monday that he will not give up. His campaign focused on the arduous task of getting to the polls in all 50 states without the support of a political party, which requires considerable time and money.
Allies of Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden worry about how Kennedy’s campaign will affect his own prospects in the White House. Third-party candidates rarely win more than a few percentage points of the vote, but Democrats blame Green Party candidates in 2000 and 2016 for tilting the election in Republican favor.
Kennedy has used nontraditional platforms, including podcasts and YouTube, to build a following among younger voters and those distrustful of institutions, groups Trump hopes to bring into his fold. Democrats fear Kennedy will turn some of the anti-Trump voters they hope will go to Biden, helping the former president win.
In his call with Kennedy, Trump discusses the assassination attempt on him and the phone call he later received from Biden, who he said was “very nice.” He compared the feeling of the bullet cutting into his ear to that of “the biggest mosquito in the world.”
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