Wild Joe Rogan podcast featuring Robert F. Kennedy Jr

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy did not hold back when speaking to the controversial podcaster.

RFK made some wild claims on the Joe Rogan podcast. Picture: Supplied

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr has appeared on controversial podcaster Joe Rogan’s show where he has doubled down on his conspiracy theory on his uncle JFK’s assassination and his anti-vaccine stance.

Mr Kennedy appeared on the show on Thursday with Mr Rogan acknowledging that “people are very concerned with letting you (RFK Jr) say things that’s going to get them in trouble” because he was a “kind of looney” regarding vaccines.

Mr Kennedy went into detail about how he, as an environmental lawyer, was approached by a woman with an autistic son that changed his outlook on vaccination.

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no link between vaccines and autism.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr on Why No One Will Debate Him on Vaccines, Not Even Peter Hotez

"Nobody in eighteen years has been willing to debate me"@[e-mail]/gRjLJxkMg0

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) June 15, 2023

He also peddled a conspiracy that the CIA was involved in the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy.

“What do you think happens when you get into office? Like, if you’re talking about your uncle who was assassinated and you believe the intelligence agencies were a part of that, what happens to you?” Mr Rogan probed.

“Well, I got to be careful,” Mr Kennedy responded. “And I’m aware of that — I’m aware of that danger. I don’t live in fear of it, you know, at all. But I’m not stupid about it, and I take precautions.”

Joe Rogan asks RFK Jr. what he thinks will happen to him if he gets into office after talking about the CIA’s alleged involvement in JFK’s assassination.@RobertKennedyJr: “I gotta be careful. I’m aware of that danger. I don’t live in fear of it — at all.. I take precautions.” pic.twitter.com/F5OEc4936Y

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) June 15, 2023

The US government concluded that convicted shooter Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the 1963 murder of JFK.

It also determined there was no credible evidence he was part of a conspiracy to assassinate the president.

RFK Jr is best known for his views against vaccines. Picture: AFP

Podcaster Joe Rogan. Picture: Michael Schwartz/WireImage

The pair also discussed Mr Kennedy’s book on the US chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, called The Real Anthony Fauci.

In the 2021 book the presidential hopeful accused Dr Fauci of assisting in “a historic coup d’etat against western democracy” and promoted unproven Covid treatments such as ivermectin, which is meant to treat parasites, and the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

.@JoeRogan Explains Why @RobertKennedyJr’s “The Real Anthony Fauci” Must Be True

“If what you were saying in that book was not true, I do not understand how you are not being sued. You would instantly, immediately be sued.” pic.twitter.com/VeKBdn92bE

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) June 15, 2023

Mr Rogan gushed about the book saying: "If what you were saying was not true you would have been instantly sued...it was so disturbing that sometimes I had to go and read fiction at times.”

Who is RFK Jr?

For starters, he hails from a political dynasty.

Mr Kennedy is the nephew of assassinated former president John F. Kennedy and the son of Bobby, gunned down on the campaign trail in 1968.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr and his wife actress Cheryl Hines wave to supporters on stage after announcing his candidacy for president in April. Picture: AFP

The self-proclaimed ‘truth-teller” is an environmental lawyer and author of two best-selling books.

He is also known to have a troubling relationship with women according to a recent book by Jerry Oppenheimer titled Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream.

The book claims he was a serial cheater who proposed to second wife Mary Richardson while still married to first wife Emily Black, and later allegedly encouraged Mary to commit suicide.

“Any woman who gets involved with Bobby does so with her eyes open, or their brains lopped off,” a longtime friend of the successful environmental lawyer warns in the book.

Mr Kennedy has six children.

He married Curb Your Enthusiasm actor Cheryl Hines in 2014.

RFK Jr is best known for his controversial views on vaccines and liberal attitude to gun reform, which clash with many of the viewpoints within his own political party.

“Even the slightest press scrutiny is his biggest problem,” one Biden insider said to Politico about RFK Jr: “When Democrats see a candidate is anti-vaccination, anti-assault weapons ban, and a quasi 2020 election denier, their first thought is that this person must be a MAGA Republican.”

They only pretend to think it was unprovoked. They are lying to us, manufacturing consent for war. The administration has dragged us into a proxy war on false pretenses. The blood of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians is on their hands, not to mention over $100 billion U.S.…

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 24, 2023

But that’s not the only thing about him.

TIME magazine once named him “Hero for the Planet”, and he spent much of his speech when he launched his presidential bid talking about his environmental evangelism against big polluters.

His campaign centres on his claim that the government and big business are working together to benefit the rich and oppress working people.

Then-Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 on the campaign trail.

He is also resolutely anti-war and believes the ‘mistakes’ in Europe that led to war between Russia and Ukraine are being repeated in the Asia Pacific.

“We need to let China and Taiwan settle their differences in peace without pressure from outside, in their own way, and not be injecting the US military into something that could become World War III and, you know, destroy the whole planet,” he said.

Could he hurt Biden?

Let’s be clear. Robert F. Kennedy Jr poses no direct danger to Joe Biden.

There certainly is no precedent for a sitting president to be seriously challenged within his own party.

As is customary, the Democratic party apparatuses has already chosen its man. There will be no debates; Mr Kennedy will see no institutional support.

Despite this, he is polling a sizeable chunk for a primary challenger against an incumbent president at roughly 20 per cent.

The President is sitting at 60 per cent, while his other primary challenger, author Marianne Williamson, has eight per cent of the vote.

But just because Mr Kennedy is highly unlikely to win, it doesn’t mean his longshot bid can’t wound Mr Biden – fatally.

The concern within the Biden camp is that RFK Jr he could expose the vulnerabilities of the President for a Republican to take advantage of.

Many point to history.

Phillip Elliot wrote in Time that “past serious primary challengers have proven popular enough to throw incumbent presidents off their game”.

While those challenges might have failed they “exposed intra-party divisions that helped to make each incumbent a one-term president”.

Polls show many Americans think Joe Biden is ‘too old’ for a second term. Picture: AFP

Etched in Democratic lore is RFK Jr’s uncle, Ted Kennedy’s challenge to Jimmy Carter in 1980.

He failed but the contest between the two weakened the incumbent so much that the Republican outsider Ronald Reagan was able to win the election.

Polls suggest that many Democratic voters remain unenthusiastic about backing the 80-year-old Mr Biden for another term. Many consider him too old.

The concern is a rising RFK Jr could embarrass Mr Biden in primaries.

As Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza and Rachael Bade wrote in Politico on RFK Jr:

“What he is, though is an annoyance for Biden — and a potentially dangerous one.

“Besides using his legendary name and a national campaign megaphone to espouse fringe views, his outsize polling performance has served as a routine reminder of Biden’s vulnerabilities among his base.”

[e-mail]