Less than one year out from the 2024
election, polls are showing
that voters are not happy
with the possibility
of a Trump Biden rematch.
And third party
candidates are set to play
a decisive role in the race.
Among them is robert F Kennedy Jr.
He announced his run
as an independent in October
after he ended his bid
for the Democratic Party nomination.
The latest poll from
Quinnipiac University
shows that in a three way
matchup against Trump and Biden,
21% of registered
voters said they backed Kennedy.
And robert f kennedy
jr joins me now
to discuss all of this and more.
Mr.
Kennedy, thank you very much
for being here. Very much for having me.
Why do one in five Americans
say that they're
interested in your candidacy?
I think they
and those are the people who've heard me
speak, is that people
who are listening
to podcasts is listening
to long form interviews,
and they want to change.
They don't want to be told
by either party
that you have to choose between
the lesser of two evils.
I think they want
a candidate
who is going to bring people together,
who's is going to inspire people,
who cares about
who's talking to all the candidates,
talking about what's happening
to the middle class in this country,
an idea that if you work hard
and you play by the rules,
you ought to be able
to make a decent living.
You ought to be able to afford a home.
You ought to be able to
raise a family,
take a summer
vacation
and put aside something for retirement.
And that was the central promise
of the American dream.
And
and it's now gone for this generation,
particularly people
20 to 35, who I'm very, very strong with
are saying it
no longer applies to them
and they're feeling betrayed.
You also have a very famous last name,
especially in American politics.
When you announced your run,
there were some members
of the Kennedy family
who were not happy about it.
They wrote in a statement,
quote, The decision of our brother Bobby
to run as a third party
candidate against
Joe Biden is dangerous to our country.
And they said that while you might share
the same name as our father,
you do not share the same values, vision
or judgment.
Today's announcement
is deeply saddening for us.
We denounce his candidacy
and believe it to be perilous
for our country.
What have you said to your family?
Well, you know, I have a big family.
I have about 105
4th of July.
And we sort of, when I last counted,
a lot of them support me.
A lot of them I'm in.
Oh, listen,
my family has a long, long relationship
with President Biden.
President Biden has a bus.
My father behind him at the Oval Office.
There's I've
members of my family
who have jobs with the administration.
So, you know, I understand that they
that some of them are troubled
by my running
against somebody
who's an old, old family friend.
And then some disagree with me
on issues like the Ukraine war
and so, you know,
I was raised in a milieu where we were
where we argued with each other.
We were actually orchestrated debates
every night at the kitchen table,
dining room table.
And it was a lot of passion.
And we were encouraged.
But we also know how to differ
with each other
and still love each other.
I love my family
and they're entitled to their opinions
and I don't think I'm
going to elect Donald Trump.
Well, they may people may believe that.
But, you know, that's up to them.
I don't think
I think I should be running
for president.
I think people need to hear
somebody talking instead of vitriol.
The anger, the hatred, the division.
I think people need to hear
about a vision for this country
that is going to restore
the industrial base,
that is going to restore
that middle class,
that's going to get a generation of kids
into homes, into houses.
And and I think
we ought to be asking our politicians
how they're going to do that.
I'm the only politician
who's talking about that.
I'm the only one who
who's offered solutions for that.
All right.
So you have gained notoriety
for your skepticism about vaccines.
And over the summer, in an interview,
you said, quote,
There's no vaccine that is,
you know, safe and effective.
Do you still believe that?
I never said so. Stop me.
We have the clip. Let's play the clip.
I play the whole clip.
I just talked about that
the media slanders you by
calling you an anti-vaxxer
and you've said that
you're not anti-vaccine.
You're pro safe vaccine.
Difficult question.
Can you name
any vaccines that you think are good?
I think some of the live virus
vaccines are probably
a sort of earning
more problems than they're causing.
There's no vaccine that
is, you know, safe and effective.
So you did say it.
Do you still believe it?
Well,
here's what
here's what I here's what I would say.
First of all, I'm not anti-vaccine.
How is that statement not anti-vaccine?
Well, it's
it's it's
I can say right now
there's no better medicine
for cancer that safe and effective.
It doesn't mean I'm out.
Gets all medicine.
I've been fighting for two years
to get mercury out of fish.
Nobody calls me any fish.
What I want is vaccines
that are proven safe.
And what I meant,
which was a bad use of words.
And as none of the vaccines
that are currently
on the mandated schedule
for children, 72,
the vaccines
have ever been tested
in a licensing safety study.
What that means is that we do not know.
We do not know
what the risk profile
is for those products.
And you cannot prove that any or say
with any scientific certainty
and any of those products are missing.
You still believe
that no vaccines are safe and effective?
Oh, I'm saying
none of the 72 vaccines that that
safety study relies.
So let me ask you,
if you think it's wise for people
to take these vaccines
because you had this to say
on a different podcast
about whether people with young
babies should be
getting them shots, Watch.
For many, many years.
I think parents
were so gaslighted and scapegoated
and they were vilified and marginalized
then.
Even your parents,
who were very, very badly
injured, knew
what happened to their child,
but they were just
reluctant to talk about it.
And I think now those days are over.
We are.
Our job is to resist
and to talk about it.
Everybody, you're walking down the street
and I do this now myself, which is,
you know,
I don't want to do it on a busy day.
I see somebody on a hiking trail
with a carrying a little baby, and I
and you hear that from me.
If you hear it from Jen, other people
maybe won't do it.
You know, maybe you weren't
able to save that child.
Maybe you will save that child.
Using preventing vaccines
for a child will save that child.
Do you still say this to parents today?
But what I say again
is I had three vaccines
when I was a kid
and I was fully compliant.
My kids got 72.
The current recommendations are,
I think, around 77
and I have a vaccine record for my child
and there are not 77, 70, 77 dose.
There are 72 doses of 16 vaccines.
Oh, that's just a fact.
And there are certain vaccines
that were added
to the schedule after 1986
because 1986 Congress made it
so that it's impossible
to a vaccine company,
no matter how negligent they are,
no matter how grievous your entry,
no matter how reckless or so
what were your
what were your three vaccines?
Let me let me finish this.
And the there was a gold rush
and a vaccine schedule,
including a lot of vaccines
that aren't not
for diseases
that are not even casually contagious.
I i hepatitis hepatitis B.
So you don't think hepatitis
A, hepatitis B vaccine is progress?
I don't think that hepatitis B,
I don't think the current habits
I think the current science suggest
that the current
hepatitis B
vaccines are causing more problems
than they're solving and listen,
why would you I'm
not in a position to argue with you.
I would do science,
but I'm glad you're on the record
as saying that.
Well, I would you I would you have a baby
if a baby hepatitis B vaccine
and the only way
that you can catch
a hepatitis B
is through sexual interactions or using
a needle.
Now, there are mothers
who about their children
and all those mothers are tested
in every hospital in the country.
Oh, if so, if somebody is at risk,
I wouldn't object to it.
But why give it to a whole generation?
You know,
good health comes from building
a strong immune system.
And we had
we never had hepatitis
B epidemics when I was a kid.
We never had rotavirus epidemics.
A lot of these
these products were
added to this schedule
because they enriched the companies.
And this is automatic booking,
an automatic windfall, a company
now being they're now allowed to mandate
their product with no legal liability.
So do you think I should be required
to be vaccinated in public schools now?
I would be against mandates
at all, for any vaccines,
for any vaccine.
Okay. I'm glad we established that.