Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has previously challenged President Joe Biden’s “mental acuity,” made an embarrasing blunder over the weekend, urging US officials to negotiate with world leaders, including a former Iranian president who hasn’t held power in more than a decade.
The Independent presidential candidate made the remarks while speaking at a campaign event in Aurora, Colorado, on Sunday, just as the world was learning that a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian had crashed.
Iranian state media confirmed the deaths of Mr Ebrahim Raisi and Mr Amirabdollahian on Monday.
In his speech, Mr Kennedy said the US should speak to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was last in office 11 years ago. Mr Ebrahim Raisi had been president since 2021.
Mr Kennedy’s comments appeared to be tied to a point he was making about artificial intelligence, according to video of the comments circulating on social media.
“You can’t just ban AI. You can’t even over-regulate it because it will chase it out of our country. We want to keep it here,” he told a crowd of supporters. “We want to keep it here.”
“We need to be sitting down with other world leaders, with people like President Xi and President Putin and President Ahmadinejad, the prime minister, all the people — we can’t afford to be at war anymore,” he said.
Mr Ahmadinejad gained prominence during his time in office as a large supporter of the country’s nuclear program. He served as president from 2005 to 2013. He was succeeded by President Hassan Rouhani in August of 2013.
After Ebrahim Raisi’s death was announced by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Vice President Mohammad Mokhber was appointed acting president. Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani was named acting foreign minister.
An election to name a new president will be held within 50 days, per the country’s constitution.
