Leaked footage revealed Donald Trump’s phone call with Independent presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr., showing the former president appearing to voice vaccine skepticism in a bid to woo him – and dishing on his call with President Biden after his near-assassintion.
Trump, 78, reportedly contacted Kennedy seeking to nudge him to dropping out of the race and endorse him, instead. Kennedy later confirmed Tuesday that the video was real and apologized.
“I agree with you, man. Something’s wrong with that whole system, and it’s the doctors you find. Remember I said I want to do small doses. Small doses,” Trump, said in the leaked call.
“When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a 10-pound or 20-pound baby. It looks like you’re giving, you should be giving a horse this, and do you ever see the size of it?” he added.
“It’s so massive and then you see the baby all of a sudden starting to change radically.”
Throughout his 2024 bid, Kennedy has knocked Trump for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and has long expressed skepticism about the safety measures taken to approve certain vaccines.
Back in 2017, rumors swirled that Trump would set up a commission on autism helmed by Kennedy that would examine “vaccination safety and scientific integrity” more broadly.
Ultimately, that never came to fruition. Doctors have debunked any linkage between vaccines and autism.
Kennedy said Tuesday that he was “mortified” by the leak.
“When President Trump called me I was taping with an in-house videographer. I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately. I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president,” he posted on X.
Later in the leaked call, which spanned nearly two minutes, Trump seemingly alluded to his plea to Kennedy to drop out.
“Anyway, I would love you to do something and I think it would be so good for you, and so big for you. And we’re going to win,” he said. “We’re way ahead of the guy.”
Trump then pivoted to riff about the failed assassination attempt against him during his Saturday rally in Butler, Pa., and appeared to dish on his subsequent call with President Biden.
“You know it’s very interesting. You know he called me and he said, ‘How did you choose to move to the right?’” Trump recounted. “I said ‘I was just showing a chart.’ I didn’t have to tell him the chart was all the people pouring into our country.”
“And something rapped me — it felt like a giant, like the world’s largest mosquito.”
Trump survived the shooting attack which drew blood from his ear, killed at least one person, and severely wounded at least two others. The suspected shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was immediately killed by law enforcement snipers.
Kennedy was one of the scores of prominent political figures who reached out to Trump after that shooting.
“I sent a message out, a note out to President Trump tonight and to his family, telling him how relieved I am that he was not more than badly injured, wishing him quick recovery, thanking him for his career during that event, which was inspirational,” Kennedy recalled in a Fox News interview hours after the shooting.
The 45th president attended the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum Monday to listen to several speeches and showcased a large bandage around most of his right ear.
Earlier in the day, the Republican delegates voted to crown him the GOP nominee for president and he unveiled that Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) will be his running mate.
Trump is expected to deliver remarks at the RNC later in the week.
The Post contacted the Trump and Kennedy campaigns for comment.
