CNN host Jack Tapper has published a column in which he accused Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of telling a “wild and false” story about an interaction between them in 2005.
Kennedy’s comments came during an appearance on a June 5 podcast hosted by Jordan Peterson and were part of an attack on the way the media reports on Big Pharma.
RFK Jr. said he worked for three weeks with Tapper, who was then at ABC News, on a documentary about vaccinations that was suddenly shelved.
Tapper’s account said he did not work with Kennedy, merely interviewed him over the phone for an ABC News segment, which was not rescinded.
The attack on Kennedy Jr. comes as a remarkable video has surfaced showing the 69-year-old Democratic presidential nominee lifting weights at Venice Beach’s legendary Gold’s Gym, dubbed the “Mecca of bodybuilding.”
A photo accompanies the video, showing RFK Jr. shirtless and well built.
The attack on Kennedy Jr. comes as a remarkable video has surfaced showing the 69-year-old Democratic presidential nominee lifting weights at Venice Beach’s legendary Gold’s Gym, dubbed the “Mecca of bodybuilding.”
Tapper’s account states that he did not work with Kennedy, but merely interviewed him over the phone for an ABC TV segment. He is pictured in May 2019
“RFK Jr. has made so many false and wild claims on a number of important issues,” Tapper noted in the column published June 22, before claiming he was “not interested in the facts.”
Tapper provided a fairly lengthy account in the column, and began explaining that their interaction stemmed from Kennedy co-publishing an article with Rolling Stone Magazine and Salon.com in 2005.
In it he claimed that there was a link between certain mercury vaccines and autism – both publications have since retracted the statement due to factual inaccuracies.
A photo accompanies the video, showing RFK Jr. shirtless and well built
Tapper provided a fairly lengthy account in the column, and began explaining that their interaction stemmed from Kennedy co-publishing an article with Rolling Stone Magazine and Salon.com in 2005
On the Jordan Peterson podcast, which has been deleted from YouTube but is still available on Twitter, RFK Jr. said he spent “three weeks working on this incredible documentary” with Tapper.
He then said Tapper informed him over the phone that the “documentary” would be killed by “corporations” — something that had never happened before.
“RFK Jr. has misrepresented the content of this call for years,” Tapper wrote.
Tapper implied in his CNN column that he would never have used that word and that a number of his stories had previously been scrapped.
He said that while his post was not canceled, he delayed the post a day to interview other experts and eventually aired on June 22, 2005.
“In his retelling, a two-minute piece was an ‘amazing documentary,’ a couple of days’ work lasted three weeks, I worked closely with him on a remote interview, and a piece was pushed back a day so we could interview some.” Actual Experts is a play that got killed,” Tapper wrote.
Tapper also appeared on a podcast titled “Pod Save America” last week, in which he expressed similar disagreements about Kennedy.
CNN presenter Jake Tapper is pictured with his wife Jennifer Marie Brown at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York in 2018
‘[Kennedy] “Spreading dangerous misinformation about childhood vaccinations,” he said, before saying he would not invite Kennedy to a town hall meeting on CNN.
“He was so dishonest about that experience and has frequently lied about the experience ever since,” he said.
Tapper also quoted from his own section to reflect how he had reported Kennedy’s article.
Tapper claims he said in his post, “The medical community overwhelmingly disagrees with Kennedy, who is not a scientist or a doctor.” They point out that autism rates are not going down, even though thimerosal has been removed from most childhood vaccines as a precaution .”
He wrote at the end of his column, “We did the fact-checking for our article that RFK Jr. didn’t do himself,” then added, “And he remains someone to be relied on for fact, truth, or accuracy.” can’t leave.”