Bobby Kennedy III released footage of a phone call between his father, Robert Kennedy Jr., and President Trump, to show “Trump giving his real opinion to my dad about vaccinating kids.”

In the now-deleted video, Trump and Mr. Kennedy can be heard airing their suspicions of vaccines — a hallmark of Mr. Kennedy’s campaign — with Trump saying that “something’s wrong with the whole system.” 

Trump adds that after receiving vaccinations that look “like it’s meant for a horse” babies can “change radically. I’ve seen it too many times.” 

Mr. Bobby Kennedy III took to social media platform X to leak the footage, writing that “these sorts of conversations should be had in public” adding that “here’s Trump giving his real opinion to my dad about vaccinating kids.” 

The son of the president hopeful then denounced Trump’s pick of vice president for being pro-vaccine, writing that “He could have pickled a unity ticket instead he picked JD ‘fire all the unvaccinated nurses’ Vance.”

While Senator Vance has publicly announced that he has received the COVID-19 vaccination and encouraged his family to do the same, he opposed Ohio State University’s decision to impose a vaccine mandate on its students, describing it as an “invasion of medical privacy.” 

Further, during the conversation, which took place just a day after the GOP nominee’s near-assassination, Trump pitches his confidence that his campaign is “going to win,” and seemingly offers Mr. Kennedy a position in his camp, saying, “I would love you to do stuff. And I think it would be so good for you and so big for you.” 

Trump also details his experience of being shot, describing that the bullet’s graze of his ear “felt like the world’s largest mosquito.” He adds: “That was a big gun. That was a pretty tough gun, right?”

Following the release of the leaked footage, Mr. Kennedy issued an apology to the former president on X, saying he was “mortified that this was posted.” The call, he claims, came as he was “taping with an in-house videographer” though he adds that he “should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately.” 

Mr. Kennedy, however, does not make mention of his son being the culprit behind the video. 

The incident comes as the independent candidate had to squash rumors that he was planning on dropping out of the race after a meeting with Trump sparked speculation. 

Trump has not yet commented on the leaked footage.