Trump seems worried about losing the anti-vaxxer vote to RFK Jr.

Former President Donald Trump appears concerned that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will win over one of Trump’s main interest groups: anti-vaccines.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee on Thursday denounced Kennedy, who tried to distance himself from his documented history as a vaccine skeptic, in a four-minute Truth Social video Thursday, in which he claimed Kennedy had distorted his views on vaccines to curry favor. with the right.

“Republicans, don’t think anymore that you’re going to vote for this guy because he’s conservative. That’s not the case,” Trump said.

“For those of you who want to vote because you think he’s anti-vaccine, he’s not really anti-vaccine,” Trump continued. “This is just his political moment.” So, RFK, his views on vaccines are wrong, as is everything else about his candidacy.”

Kennedy said he never advised the public not to get vaccinated and insisted he was not against it. But his profile as a vaccine skeptic has exploded during the pandemic, and he said as recently as July last year that there was no safe and effective vaccine. He has also promoted anti-Semitic and anti-vaccine messages through his nonprofit, Children’s Defense Fund.

Kennedy’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s remarks.

During the pandemic, anti-vaxxers found a political home in Trump, whose administration nevertheless took credit for helping to speed up the COVID vaccine through Operation Warp Speed.

However, Trump has reason to worry that anti-vaxxers, an extreme faction of his MAGA constituency that views government and big pharmaceutical companies with skepticism, could migrate to Kennedy, a former Democrat who appears to siphon more support from voters in Trump than the president’s voters. Joe Biden with his independent candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.

In his video, Trump claimed that Kennedy was a “plant” Democrat and a “radical left-wing liberal” who was only in the race to help Biden. He also criticized Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, a Silicon Valley lawyer and ex-wife of Google founder Sergey Brin, saying she was more liberal than Kennedy and was only running on his list for help finance it.

“(Kennedy) is not a Republican, so don’t think you’re going to vote for him and feel good,” Trump said. “He’s a radical left-wing democrat. Let the Democrats have RFK Jr., they deserve it.