Former President Donald Trump‘s phone call with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was leaked, making public new details about the shooting and the Republican nominee’s views on vaccines.
‘It felt like the world’s largest mosquito,’ Trump said about the bullet that whizzed by and clipped his ear on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, calling the AR-15 a ‘big gun.’
Prior to divulging what it felt like to be shot, Trump is heard trying to coax RFK Jr. to join his team, suggesting that the independent and vaccine skeptic could do something with immunization in a second Trump administration.
‘And we’re going to win, we’re way ahead of the guy,’ Trump is heard saying, as the video captures Kennedy, a former Democrat, saying, ‘yeah.’
Trump then segues into the call he had with President Joe Biden, as the president touched base with his political rival in the hours following Saturday’s assassination attempt.
A video of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was leaked that showcases his telephone conversation Monday with former President Donald Trump. In the video Trump discusses the shooting and disparages vaccines
‘He was very nice actually. He called and he said, “How did you choose to move to the right?”‘ Trump said.
The Republican nominee noted how he was ‘looking straight on.’
‘I said, “I was just showing a chart,”‘ he told Kennedy he told Biden. ‘I didn’t have to tell him the chart, it was about all the people pouring into our country right?’ Trump added with a chuckle.
‘But I just turned my head to show the chart and something wrapped me,’ Trump continued, then making the comparison to a giant mosquito.
At the top of the conversation, Trump is heard mulling whether vaccine doses for babies 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 instead children are getting ’38 different vaccines.’
‘And it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a 10-pound or 20-pound baby,’ Trump continued. ‘And then you see the baby all of the sudden starting to change radically, I’ve seen it too many times and then you hear that it doesn’t have an impact right?’
Trump then pointed out to Kennedy that they had had a similar conversation years ago.
‘I would love you to do stuff,’ the Republican nominee also offered. ‘And I think it would be so big for you.’
Trump has tried to have it both ways with vaccines – heralding his administration’s Operation Warp Speed, which sped up the development of COVID-19 vaccines, while playing into vaccine skepticism, which is a belief of 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 has since been deleted.
The younger Kennedy said he wanted the public to know what Trump was saying about vaccines behind closed doors.
‘I am a firm believer that these sorts of conversations should be had in public,’ RFK III said. ‘Here’s Trump giving his real opinion to my dad about vaccinating kids – this was the day after the assassination attempt.’
‘If I violated some kind of law in posting this my only wish is to have Dr. Anthony Fauci as my cell mate,’ the candidate’s son said.
On Tuesday, Kennedy authenticated the video by apologizing for 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,’ RFK Jr. posted to X Tuesday morning.