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Former President Donald Trump compared the bullet that nearly took his life to the “world’s largest mosquito” in a leaked phone call with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
A video of Kennedy speaking to Trump on speakerphone appeared online on Tuesday, with Kennedy later apologizing and saying he was “mortified” it had been posted.
“We’re going to win, we’re way ahead of the guy,” Trump said, seemingly in reference to President Joe Biden.
The former president then went on to discuss the call he had with Biden after the attempt on his life on Saturday, when Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Two people were killed in the shooting, including the 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and another two people were severely injured.
“It was very nice actually, he called me and he said ‘How did you choose to move to the right?’” Trump told Kennedy, before noting that he was viewing a chart of immigration figures at the time. “I didn’t have to tell him the chart was on all the people pouring into our country.”
Trump added that he “turned his head to show the chart” and “something rapped me, it felt ... like the world’s largest mosquito.”
The former president went on to note that it was an AR-15-style rifle that was used in the shooting, “Those are pretty tough guns, right?”
Kennedy apologized for the leak on Friday.
“When President Trump called me I was taping with an in-house videographer,” he wrote on X. “I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately. I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president.”
Earlier in the call, Trump and Kennedy appeared to be discussing vaccines, and the ex-commander-in-chief seemed to express sympathy for Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views.
While Kennedy has long been considered to be an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, he said in a recent interview with Dr. Phil that he’s fully vaccinated apart from Covid-19, adding that his children are also fully vaccinated.
“I’ve always said I’m not anti-vaccine,” he said last month.
He added: “I’m never going to take anybody’s vaccine. If vaccines are working for you, God bless you. I believe in choice and liberty, that government shouldn’t be ordering people to take a product, particularly one that is protected from liability.”
On the call, Trump appeared to sympathize with Kennedy’s views.
“I agree with you, man. Something’s wrong with that whole system,” Trump said. “Remember I said I want to do small doses. Small doses. When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a, you know, 10-pound or 20-pound baby.”
Trump also claimed to have seen babies “all of a sudden starting to change radically” after vaccinations.
Kennedy stands at nine percent in FiveThirtyEight’s polling average, with Trump leading Biden 42.5 to 40.2 percent.
The Independent has contacted the Trump and Kennedy campaigns for comment.
On Monday, Trump met with Kennedy in Milwaukee, the site of the Republican National Convention, to discuss a possible endorsement of the Republican nominee, according to Politico.
But a spokesperson for the independent candidate said “national unity” was the main topic of conversation.
“Yes, Mr. Kennedy met with President Trump today to discuss national unity, and he hopes to meet with leaders of the Democratic Party as well,” press secretary Stefanie Spear said in a statement. “And no he is not dropping out of the race. He is the only pro-environment, pro-choice, anti-war candidate who beats Donald Trump in head-to-head polls.”
Kennedy himself issued a similar statement on X, writing that there were “Lots of rumors going around about my meeting this morning with President Trump. Our main topic was national unity, and I hope to meet with Democratic leaders about that as well. No, I am not dropping out of the race.”
