Former President Trump appeared to repeat Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s erroneous views about vaccine safety in a private phone conversation between the two presidential candidates that was posted online.
Kennedy said the call took place on the Sunday before the Republican National Convention got underway, and in it Trump can be heard talking about how many vaccines children should receive at an early age.
From birth to age 6, it is recommended that infants and children be vaccinated against 16 diseases.
“I said I want to give it in small doses. When you vaccinate a baby, you’re giving them 38 vaccines, and that seems more like something for a horse, not a 10- or 20-pound baby,” Trump said.
“And then you see the baby suddenly start to change dramatically. I’ve seen it so many times,” Trump added, “and then you hear that it has no effect.”
Trump has expressed very different views on vaccines. Before entering politics, he was an avowed vaccine skeptic, often repeating the widely debunked idea that childhood vaccines, at least high doses, cause autism.
During a 2015 Republican presidential debate on CNN, Trump again suggested he believed vaccines caused autism, making comments very similar to what he said to Kennedy this week.
“You take this little sweet baby and you pump it… it looks like it’s for horses, not for kids,” Trump said. “Just the other day a beautiful child, 2 or 2-and-a-half years old, went to get her vaccination and came home, and a week later she had a raging fever and was very sick and now she’s autistic.”
During the campaign, Trump performed an intricate tap dance to negate threats that some hard-line Republicans would defect to Kennedy, an independent, because of his views on vaccines, particularly in light of Trump’s relationship with the COVID-19 vaccine.
He is keen to take credit for the vaccine’s rapid development, but at the same time he has criticised its use and accused former rivals of being too pro-vaccine.
During his presidency, Trump created “Operation Warp Speed” to accelerate the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, which he called “one of the greatest miracles of my presidency” in 2021.
When Biden touted the nation’s “return” through vaccines in his State of the Union address in March, Trump again Claimed Post credit to Truth Social: “You’re welcome, Joe! It took 9 months to get approved. It would have taken you 12 years!”
Earlier this year, he accused RFK Jr. of being a “fake” anti-vaxxer.
Kennedy apologized on Tuesday for accidentally posting the video. post On social media site X, he posted that he was recording the call from President Trump with an in-house videographer, and wrote, “I should have instructed the videographer to stop recording immediately. I am embarrassed that this was posted and I apologize to the President.”
In a statement on Tuesday, the Biden campaign slammed both Kennedy and Trump.
“Trump and his anti-vaxxer ‘Bobby’ ally are spreading dangerous conspiracy theories that threaten the life-saving health care that tens of millions of people rely on,” campaign spokesman Joe Costello said. “This leaked video is further evidence that Trump cannot be trusted to protect the health care of Americans. It’s frightening. If he comes to power, this could become a devastating reality for working families across the country.”
The claim that vaccinations cause autism in children is widely debunked. the study The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention No link Between the two.
