Ron DeSantis has vowed to “burn down the National Institutes of Health” if elected president, claimed Democratic challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
RFK Jr., the nephew of John F. Kennedy, made the remarks about the pro-lockdown agency in an interview with comedian-turned-conspiracy theorist Russell Brand.
The 69-year-old said the british actor podcast that he had met with the governor of Florida during the pandemic to discuss a possible switch to the White House.
“We talked about his running for president, and I said ‘how would you handle the NIH? And he said, “I’m going to burn it to ashes.”
Kennedy claimed he had met DeSantis before
So-called Democratic presidential candidate RFK Jr. was a guest on British comedian Russell Brand’s podcast
Anthony Fauci has found himself at the center of Tory criticism for his support for lockdowns and the wearing of face masks
The self-proclaimed serial womanizer gave no details on when the supposed meeting took place.
But he praised DeSantis for the “good things” in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Florida’s governor has largely refused to impose sweeping shutdowns on the Sunshine State, preferring to keep businesses open instead.
DailyMail.com has contacted the DeSantis campaign for comment.
Anthony Fauci, now 82, has become the face of the pandemic as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
But he has come under fire from Tories for backing Covid shutdowns and the use of face masks.
In another rambling intervention, RFK. Jr claimed Fauci and the NIH were just “sock puppets” for vaccine makers and big pharma.
The notorious anti-vaxxer told Brand, 47, that all US health agencies have been “captured from big pharma.”
Kennedy has also attacked the “military-industrial complex” and U.S. foreign interventions abroad since he launched his campaign in Boston last month.
The member of the “American Royal Family” repeatedly repeats false and often debunked conspiracy theories that FDA-approved jabs are not safe.
He made the totally unsubstantiated claim that links childhood vaccinations to autism.
His views have seen him disowned by members of his own family who have shunned him since he compared vaccination mandates to Nazi atrocities.
The social media campaigns of the environmental advocate’s former vaccine advocacy platform, Children’s Health Defense, were taken down by Instagram and Facebook last year.
Kennedy’s personal account had previously been deleted in 2021 as part of a crackdown by parent company Meta over what it called “false and misleading” information about Covid.
Her sister Kerry Kennedy, who runs Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the international rights group founded by their mother, Ethel, said her brother sometimes deleted some of the content at her request.
She told The Associated Press in a 2021 interview that her brother was “completely wrong on this matter and was very dangerous.”
His anti-vaccine charity has thrived, with revenue more than doubling in 2020 to $6.8 million, according to filings with charity regulators.
RFK is unlikely to win the nomination, along with fellow hopeless Marianne Williamson, a freelance writer.
This would pit the pair against incumbent Joe Biden, who recently declared his intention to run again.
But the threat of a main challenge would increase and put the 80-year-old’s record in his first term under the microscope.
Polls indicate that Democratic and independent voters say Biden is too old to run again.
But only one incumbent elected president has lost his party’s nomination for a second term.
Kennedy’s presidential run will also once again spotlight his colorful personal life.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has been criticized for his anti-vaxx views, officially challenges President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination
He launched his campaign at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston on April 19 with his wife, Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the son of Robert F. Kennedy (left), the late Attorney General and US Senator who was assassinated in 1968 during a presidential election. He is the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, assassinated in 1963
Hines was introduced to RFK Jr by Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Larry David in 2012
The father of six married his third wife, Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines, in 2014.
He filed for divorce from his second wife Mary in 2012, the mother of four of his children: Conor, Finny, Kyra and Aidan.
Four days later, she would be found hanged in her home in Mount Kisco, New York, apparently convinced that her estranged husband had been having an affair.
Kennedy reportedly proposed to Mary while still married to his first wife, Emily Black, whom he separated in 1992 and divorced two years later.
In 2013, the New York Post managed to obtain a leaked copy of one of Kennedy’s diaries from 2001 in which he described his battle with his “lust demons”.
The sordid 398-page diary, which features details of his day-to-day political activities, also included a dash of more than two dozen sexual conquests heaped up behind his second wife’s back.
They included the women’s names but had numbers from 1 to 10 next to each entry.
The codes corresponded to sexual acts, with 10 meaning full intercourse.
In the entries, Kennedy repeatedly presents himself as a victim who has been hopelessly seduced by a series of women.
“I narrowly escaped being attacked by a double team of [two women]. It was tempting but I prayed and God gave me the strength to say no,” he wrote on February 6 that year.
On May 21, he wrote about hosting a dinner party for Leonardo DiCaprio, driving the actor to town.
He then met someone else in Manhattan, claiming he “was mugged on his way home”, registering a 10 with the name of a woman next to it.
“I have to do better,” he wrote at the time.
In another entry, Kennedy vows to “avoid the company of women”. You don’t have the strength to resist their charms’ and to be humble like a monk. Do not touch. Look away.
Kennedy’s scion began dating actress Hines in 2011 amid a bitter dispute with estranged wife Mary over custody and finances that ended when she tragically took her own life.
