With Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. now running as an independent in the 2024 presidential race, many argue that his conspiratorial beliefs may be more of a threat to the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, than President Joe Biden.
It was a fact clearly not lost on Sean Hannity, a close Trump confidant who came out swinging against RFK Jr. Tuesday night during an interview on his primetime Fox News program.
“So, I hope you don’t mind, but I did a little research on you. You’re pretty liberal,” the Fox host said before highlighting his work as an environmental lawyer. “You called for curbing logging, oil drilling, fracking. You wanted to eliminate it. You called it a victory for democracy. You want to curb U.S. fossil fuel extraction.”
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After citing Kennedy Jr.’s endorsements of Democratic candidates over the years, Hannity asked why the Democratic Party didn’t “want” him since “that’s as pretty liberal of a record as anybody I know.”
After a laugh, Kennedy Jr. replied that Hannity had “a litany of talking points from statements I’ve made over 40 years.”
“Some of them are stale. Some of them I’ve never said,” he claimed.
Hannity shot back: “Endorsements, we know the years: Gore, Kerry, Obama, Hillary, Bernie Sanders. They’re all recent quotes. The NRA quote you made about calling them a terror group was 2018. So these are recent positions you’ve had.”
“Do you want to talk about my positions, Sean, or do you want to read talking points from the Trump campaign?” Kennedy Jr. responded.
Reacting to Kennedy Jr.’s bid, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement Monday that “voters should not be deceived by anyone who pretends to have conservative values.”
Hannity, a longtime Trump defender, did not appreciate Kennedy, Jr.’s jab.
“Excuse me, these are not talking points. These are called Hannity points. I do my own research,” he said, holding up papers.
“No, but I saw that same list published this morning by the Trump campaign. It was the exact same list,” the candidate replied.
Trump, in a June radio interview, called Kennedy Jr. “a very smart person.”
