Nicole Shanahan stumbled at times Thursday in her first major TV interview since joining Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential ticket.
Shanahan’s full interview, in which she sat down with Elex Michaelson on Fox 11’s The Issue, was shared to YouTube on Thursday–a day before it’s slated to air in Southern California–showing Michaelson press her on basic policy issues and asking about her personal life.
Shanahan attempted to explain her beliefs on issues like vaccines and the Middle East, but the interview is sure to be most remembered for a dizzying 60 seconds where she laid out an oddly specific list of things that she believes would make her a great commander-in-chief.
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Michaelson asked Shanahan–bluntly—what in her background would make her a good president if, in a “worst-case scenario,” she had to lead the country.
“I think that I have a very sophisticated view on foreign affairs due to my previous work in intellectual property law (sic),” she said. “I understand how global commerce works. I understand how we build batteries around the world.”
The head-scratcher of a response went further off the rails shortly after.
“I understand the importance of semiconductors. I understand that big foreign policy decisions are made specifically around semiconductors, and I also am multicultural,” she continued. “My background is one in which I’ve spent most of my spiritual life studying world religions, and I think it’s really important right now for us to understand and respect each other’s religious alignment and understand the depths and the nuances of it.”
Shanahan, who’s the ex-wife of Google founder Sergey Brin, added in the same breath that she also has “a great deal of understanding, compassion, strength and will to put America first.”
Of her choice to be VP, Shanahan responded similarly: “I want to be vice president because I want to take my learnings of being a mother in today’s America, um, being, uh, somebody who has really looked at our health-care issues, who understands deeply our AI challenges and the the technology landscape of this country and I want to bring it to the White House,” Shanahan said.
She continued: “I think that there’s a great need right now to bring a youthful capable, um, mindset and framing to the biggest issues that are challenging this country today and of course I, I’m a very, very enthusiastic, uh, Bobby Kennedy supporter.”
Shanahan appeared more poised when speaking about abortion, however, stating plainly that it “is a part of health care.” She also had an answer ready when Michaelson asked if she and Kennedy truly believed they could pull off an election-night shocker.
“We’re not going to give away our full path to victory strategy, but we do have we have a five-inch-thick strategy document that we’re following,” she claimed. “So we can definitely win. We have a very thorough strategy and a path towards victory.”
Of her controversial take on vaccines, she spoke out against mandates, revealing that she’d received the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 three times but admitted regretted receiving it and allowing her daughter to do the same. She she wished she’d done more research ahead of time.
“I, I believe in medical freedom,” she said.
“I believe that with full, true informed consent a parent will make the best decision for their child. Given this, mandates don’t make sense when you put full faith in a free market for vaccines, um, and you do this as well with food... if you allow people to understand and fully understand what they’re putting into their children they will oftentimes make the right decision for their children, so the idea that the average American can’t come to that decision independent of a mandate really makes me wonder what’s going on, um, why has our government lost so much faith in the American parent?”
The interview comes on the heels of Shanahan slingshotting into stardom in Silicon Valley and beyond. Shanahan echoed a storyline that her acolytes had earlier described to The Daily Beast, that of the child of impoverished parents who fought her way to the top. Others who knew her, however, shared their horror at the idea that she is a step away from the presidency.
Some have rumored that Shanahan may have White House ambitions beyond just being tied to Kennedy, hoping to one day occupy the Oval Office herself.
In the meantime, Shanahan said she’s happy to be on Kennedy’s ticket, and that she would’ve been equally pleased to see any of his other potential prospects—looking at you, Aaron Rodgers—in her place.
“I would be just equally as enthusiastic had he gone with any of the other options,” she said. “He invited me to consider joining as his vice presidential candidate, and I gave it good thought, long consideration...I’m grateful to be able to go out there and listen and to represent the broadest possible voice in America. I’m very grateful to be able to give voice to children in this country.”
