Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suddenly appears to be the most open of any White House contender to discuss his past medical troubles, in a move some experts are calling “bizarre.”
Earlier this month, it was discovered that Kennedy had a parasitic brain infection, and he has spoken openly about the incident in numerous interviews, along with other health issues, including mercury poisoning, which he spoke about frequently in the years before he ran for president.
“Bragging about having brain parasites, bragging about mercury poisoning, and just generally weird behavior doesn’t inspire confidence in voters, and it’s definitely weird,” Democratic strategist Eric Koch told Fox News.・Told Digital.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cannot be expected to be taken seriously as a candidate when he has publicly stated that he may not be fit to lead.”
Kennedy cover-up: Withholding brainworm and other problems from public view
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. waves to the crowd as he steps off the stage after speaking at a voter rally at the Stanley Marketplace Hangar on May 19, 2024 in Aurora, Colorado. (Helen H. Richardson/Media News Group/Denver Post via Getty Images)
“Revelations like this are why his poll numbers are sagging. The more people know about RFK Jr., the more it becomes clear that his vanity project is not worth wasting your vote on,” he added, citing some polls suggesting Kennedy’s support is slowing. Other polls show he has maintained a steady double-digit approval rating nationally.
Republican strategist and Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe said Kennedy’s sudden openness about his health issues was a “strange move” given that Biden is “essentially the ‘Weekend at Barneys’ candidate.”
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“It’s a bit of a strange strategy because you want to project strength in this campaign, not weakness. The irony is that the person with the stamina in this campaign is 77-year-old Donald Trump, who is working other people hard and beating them while they’re trying to throw him in jail and bankrupt him at the same time,” she added.
Kennedy’s experience with the brain-eating bugs was revealed in a New York Times story published earlier this month, citing a 2012 testimony from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital that Kennedy was summoned by doctors there after they noticed dark spots on his brain scans and he complained of memory loss and mental fog.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at a voter rally at the Hangar at Stanley Marketplace on May 19, 2024 in Aurora, Colorado. (Helen H. Richardson/Denver Post)
Kennedy recalled that her doctor told her that the spots were “caused by an insect that got into her brain and ate part of it.” However, he told the Times in an interview several months ago that he had recovered from his previously revealed memory loss.
In the same interview, he said that although he had suffered from atrial fibrillation for decades and had been hospitalized four times, he had not had anything related to the disease in more than 10 years.
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The day after his parasitic infection was revealed, Kennedy told The New York Times and Ben Shapiro’s “Pushing the Limits” podcast that he had experienced mercury poisoning around the same time as his parasitic infection, and that his body He said he underwent treatment to remove mercury from his body.
“At the same time, I was getting tested for mercury. I had all kinds of tests done. And my mercury test results were ridiculously high. I think it was 10 times the EPA blood mercury level. ” Kennedy said on the show. “It was more than 10 times what anyone would consider safe. I underwent chelation therapy and all the brain fog went away.”
Media figures recently denigrated presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying that President Biden would be “far worse” for democracy than former President Trump. (John Nasion/Getty Images)
But President Kennedy has frequently talked about his battle with mercury poisoning in interviews dating back to at least 2004, years before he dealt with the parasite.
“I have so much mercury in my body that if I were a woman of childbearing age, I would give birth to a child who would be cognitively impaired, probably permanently reduced in IQ by five to seven points,” Kennedy said during a September 2004 appearance on C-SPAN.
He said in subsequent interviews in 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 that he had “recently” experienced high levels of mercury in his blood and was suffering from memory loss.
FOX News Digital has reached out to the Kennedy campaign for comment.
Fox News’ Howard Kurtz contributed to this report.
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