Trump Seems Worried About Losing Anti-Vaxxer Vote To RFK Jr.
HuffPost
The former president ranted about Kennedy in a social media post Thursday, calling his views on vaccines "fake" like "everything else about his candidacy."
Former President Donald Trump seems to be anxious that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will win over one of Trump’s key constituencies — anti-vaxxers.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee ranted about Kennedy, who has tried to distance himself from his documented history as a vaccine skeptic, in a four-minute Truth Social video on Thursday, in which he claimed that Kennedy has misrepresented his views on vaccines to curry favor with the right.
“Republicans, get it out of your mind that you’re going to vote for this guy because he’s conservative. He’s not,” Trump said.
“For those of you that want to vote because you think he’s an anti-vaxxer, he’s not really an anti-vaxxer,” Trump continued. “That’s only his political moment. So, RFK, his views on vaccines are fake, as is everything else about his candidacy.”
Kennedy has said he’s never advised the public not to get vaccines and has insisted that he’s not against them. But his profile as a vaccine skeptic exploded during the pandemic, and he has said as recently as July last year that there’s no such thing as a safe and effective vaccine. He’s also promoted antisemitic-tinged, anti-vaccine messaging through his nonprofit, Children’s Defense Fund.