Former President Donald Trump’s phone call with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy has been leaked, revealing new details about the shooting and the Republican candidate’s views on vaccines.
“It looked like the biggest mosquito in the world,” Trump said of the bullet that whizzed past his ear Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, calling the AR-15 a “big gun.”
Before revealing how he felt about getting shot, Trump is heard trying to convince RFK Jr. to join his team, suggesting the independent and vaccine skeptic could do something about immunization in a second Trump administration.
“And we’re going to win, we’re way ahead of that guy,” Trump is heard saying, as the video captures Kennedy, a former Democrat, saying, “yeah.”
Trump then moves on to the call he had with President Joe Biden, when the president reached out to his political rival in the hours after Saturday’s assassination attempt.
A video of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been leaked showing his Monday phone conversation with former President Donald Trump. In the video, Trump talks about the shooting and disparages vaccines
“He was actually very nice. He called me and asked, ‘How did you choose to move to the right?'” Trump said.
The Republican candidate stressed that he was “looking straight ahead.”
“I said, ‘I was just showing you a chart,'” he told Kennedy he told Biden. “I didn’t have to tell you the chart, it was all about all the people coming into our country, right?” Trump added with a laugh.
“But I just turned my head to show the graph and something engulfed me,” Trump continued, later making the comparison to a giant mosquito.
Early in the conversation, Trump is heard musing about whether vaccine doses for infants are too large.
“Something is wrong with that whole system,” Trump said, referring to Kennedy as “Bobby.”
“Remember I said I wanted to do small doses, small doses,” he continued, adding that children are instead receiving “38 different vaccines.”
“And it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a 10- or 20-pound baby,” Trump continued. “And then you see the baby suddenly start changing radically, I’ve seen that too many times, and then you hear that it has no impact, right?”
Trump then pointed out to Kennedy that they had had a similar conversation years ago.
“I would love for you to do things,” the Republican candidate also said. “And I think it would be very important for you.”
Trump has tried to have it both ways on vaccines: He promoted his administration’s Operation Warp Speed, which accelerated the development of COVID-19 vaccines, while also capitalizing on vaccine skepticism, a belief held by many members of the modern Republican Party.
The video clip was initially posted by Kennedy’s son, Robert F. Kennedy III, in a post that was later deleted.
The younger Kennedy said he wanted the public to know what Trump was saying about vaccines behind closed doors.
“I firmly believe that these kinds of conversations should take place in public,” RFK III said. “Here is Trump giving his real opinion to my father on vaccinating children; this was the day after the assassination attempt.”
“If I broke any kind of law by posting this, my only wish is to have Dr. Anthony Fauci as my cellmate,” the candidate’s son said.
On Tuesday, Kennedy authenticated the video, apologizing for the leak.
“When President Trump called me, I was filming with a company cameraman. I should have ordered the cameraman to stop filming immediately. I am embarrassed that this was published. I apologize to the President.” RFK Jr. sent to X on Tuesday morning.