Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered an apology to former President Trump after a video of their phone call Monday was leaked.
Trump spoke with Kennedy before he announced Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate during Day 1 of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. In the leaked call, Trump could be heard on speakerphone saying he agrees with some of Kennedy’s stances on vaccines.
Trump could also be heard saying he would love for the long-shot candidate to “do something,” adding it would be “so good” for Kennedy. Trump also told him “we’re going to win,” according to the footage.
Kennedy apologized for the leak Tuesday, shortly after it was posted online.
“When President Trump called me I was taping with an in-house videographer. I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately,” he wrote on the social platform X. “I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president.”
Trump could also be heard telling Kennedy that President Biden was “very nice” when he called him following the attempted assassination of him over the weekend. The former president was grazed in the ear by a bullet after a gunman opened fire on his rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday. The gunman and one rally attendee were killed, and two others were critically injured.
“It felt like a giant — like the world’s largest mosquito,” he said of the bullet.
He also noted that he was shot with AR-15-style weapon, adding those are “pretty tough guns, right?” in the phone call to Kennedy.
An endorsement from the independent candidate could help boost either Trump or Biden in the race. Kennedy is polling at just 8 percent support, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s national polling average.
The Hill has reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment.