RFK JR EXCLUSIVE: Biden Unfit To Serve, Dem Party Nomination, New Vanity Fair Allegations
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Hi, I'm Katie Lowe's and I'm Guillermo Diaz. And we're the hosts of Unpacking the Toolbox, the Scandal Rewatch podcast where we're talking about all the best moments of the show. Mesmerizing. But also we get to hang out with all of our old scandal friends like Bellamy Young, Scott Foley, Tony Goldwyn, Debbie Allen, Kerry Washington. Well, suit up, gladiators. Grab your big old glass of wine and prepare yourselves for even more behind the scenes stories with Unpacking the Toolbox podcast.

Listen to Unpacking the Toolbox on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life in marriage. I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words that I've said like in my head for like 16 years.

Listen to Misspelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Angie Martinez, and on my podcast, I like to talk to everyone from Hall of Fame athletes to iconic musicians about getting real on some of the complications and challenges of real life.

I had the best dad and I had the best memories and the greatest experience. And that's all I want for my kids as long as they can have that. Listen to Angie Martinez IRL on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Joining me now is independent presidential candidate Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. And it is a pleasure to have him back on the show. It's great to see you, sir.

Sagar, thanks for having me. Absolutely. So, you know, we watched your real debate. It was garnered views by millions of people. We have some video from that, actually. And we wanted to talk to you a little bit about your decision to participate and to hold this event, which happened outside of the mainstream media system, which, frankly,

consequently was still watched by millions and what it was like to be excluded then from the CNN debate and why you decided to throw that independent event. Well, you know, 71% of the American people wanted me on that debate stage and I qualified for the debate by the criteria. I qualified better than any other candidate, let me put it that way, by the criteria that CNN established.

We think that that debate was an illegal campaign contribution by CNN to those two candidates. I don't know if the FEC will hold them responsible or not since it's dominated by those two parties. But we thought Americans deserve another chance.

Another choice and, you know, and a view of the issues that really should be talked about, the issues that those, that these two candidates will never talk about. The division in our country, which is tearing our country apart, which they can't address because they're feeding on it and they're products of it.

This huge budget deficit that the two of them, $34 trillion that is now threatening its existential threat for our country within five years, 50 cents out of every dollar that we collect in taxes is going to go to servicing the debt within 10 years, 100%. And these two candidates can't talk about it because both of them promised to balance the budget and both of them ran up the biggest deficits in history. They can't talk about winding down the wars.

because both of them are feeding into them. They can't talk about the chronic disease epidemic, which is now absorbing five times our military budget and has affected 60% of our kids. We're the sickest country in the world and they presided over it. So they can't talk about ending the corrupt merger of state and corporate power because both of them are part of the swamp and they can't talk about

making government honest again. And I said this, Sager, during the debate that the day I get into office, I'm going to issue an executive order that any federal official who lies to the American people will immediately lose their job. President Biden and President Trump can't do that. They were both up there telling lies. So I thought the Americans deserved something.

And other than the debate they were going to get from CNN, and by the way, CNN during COVID, which was the most momentous and consequential political decision over the past many decades, the lockdowns that shut down all of our businesses, shut down our schools, etc.,

CNN was the biggest cheerleader for that. So I don't think Jake Tapper is really capable of confronting these candidates on the terrible consequences that those decisions had on the American public. Bobby, one of the things that we do, I mean, I appreciate and obviously we genuinely wanted you to be on the debate stage, which we said in our coverage as well. I do think it was a very consequential decision to exclude you given the fallout from that. I'm curious to get your reaction to President Biden

performance. I mean, do you think that he's currently fit to serve as president after the performance that he gave? I don't think he's fit to serve as president. I think, you know, the thing that frightens me, Sager, is if we are in a situation where he gets that call at three o'clock in the morning and he's woken up

He's got six minutes to make the decision about whether to retaliate and to unleash our nuclear power on the Russians, the Chinese. During that six minutes, he's being pushed down corridors and tunnels under the White House at the bunker by five or six Secret Service men. And I just, I don't, you know, he's got to make a decision that's going to affect the lives of our children, that's going to affect the welfare of all of humanity. Right.

And I want somebody who's on the ball making that decision. I don't know. You know, even I'll say this, Sager, and I don't want to make this personal about me, but I've known Joe Biden for 40 years and he's just a completely different person now. And even this little decision of him not providing me with the Secret Service protection, I

I don't think that Joe Biden, I knew, would do that. I don't believe he's making that decision. I believe he probably doesn't even know about it because I think he seems unaware. And I know that, you know, Joe Biden has a bus, my father, sitting behind him at the Oval Office. He knows what happened to my dad.

And, you know, he was the person I knew that Joe Biden I knew was a decent man. He would not make this kind of decision. So I what I think is there's, you know, there's somebody sitting there, some kid in a lanyard, some anonymous man in a lanyard who's sitting with his feet up on the desk of the Oval Office saying, I'm the real president. Nobody knows about it, but there's somebody else. I just believe that there's.

somebody else making these decisions because I think that Joe Biden, I know, would not be making that kind of decision. And I can name a whole bunch of them. Right. Well, but since you were the highest polling Democrat in the race, other than Joe Biden, before you decided to run as an independent, have any Democrats or major donors reached out to you to ask you to become the standard bearer and replace him?

We haven't heard from anybody yet. I'm sure they're looking at polls. And, you know, the polls we did, the Zogby poll, which is the biggest poll ever taken in this race, one of the biggest polls ever taken, 26,000 people. So the typical poll sayer has about, by Quinnipiac or Harvard Harris or Gallup, has 1,000 to 2,200 people in it.

This was a poll of 26,000, and it shows clearly that I'm the only person who can beat Donald Trump, including President Biden. If I'm in the race, President Biden loses. If I'm out of the race, he loses even worse. But in a head-to-head, me against Donald Trump, I win. In a head-to-head, me against President Biden, I win in a landslide. I win 39 states. He only wins 11.

My numbers, I'm the only candidate who can take, who can cut into Donald Trump's base. And if they want to, if the objective, which I think is true, there's two parts of the Democratic Party. There's the donor class.

which I think would like to keep me out of the... It would rather have Donald Trump than me in office. And then there's the rank-and-file Democrats who are so terrified of Donald Trump that they would much rather have me as their candidate because I'm the only one who can win. Is it something you would even consider, Bobby, at this point? You've run as an independent, you've picked your vice president. Would you even consider running for the nomination at the DNC if they were offering it to you? I think that...

Because me running as an independent is going to cut away from votes. The Democratic and Republican parties, the clearest path for me to the White House is really a Democratic party. I don't have to do that, but...

I think that would be probably the best choice for everybody, and it's certainly something that I would consider. Well, I'm curious to then find out, because one of the things that you're often accused of is being a MAGA sympathizer or some sort of agent for Donald Trump. What did you disagree with about Trump most on the debate stage? Well, you know, I think Donald Trump was a terrible president. I think a lot of the things he talks about, he talks about winding down the military-industrial complex.

But he didn't do that. He gave the first billion and a half to Ukraine to buy for the first time offensive weapons. He was the one who sent Pompeo over there in 2019 and said, you know, we're going to extend NATO into Ukraine. And he walked away from an intermediate nuclear weapons treaty unilaterally with the Russians. And if you look at the way he governed, he said he was going to drain the swamp.

He brought a pharmaceutical industry lobbyist in to run HHS. He brought an oil lobbyist in to run the Interior Department. He brought a coal lobbyist in to run EPA. He brought a Verizon executive in to run the FCC. He brought a banker in to run the Treasury Department.

And so, you know, and he brought John Bolton in to run the NSA, and he brought an oil executive in to run the State Department. So these are swamp creatures. He wasn't draining the swamp. He was turning the government over to corporate pirates. And so everything he did in governing in that way, I think a lot of the rhetoric that he talks about, I agree with. I think we need to wind down

you know, the swamp, but he wasn't doing that. I don't think he's capable of governing, of meeting the expectations and fulfilling the promises that he raises with his rhetoric. Returning then to the possibility of running as a Democrat, do you still think that, well, I mean, one of the criticisms I've seen is that you're too far apart from the Democratic Party. Do you think that you're in line with the majority of Democrats, you know, on several of these issues? Mm-hmm.

I think that I am the classic Democrat. I'm a Kennedy Democrat. If you go down a checklist of all of the important priorities for my father, my uncle, I would check off everyone. Protecting our Constitution, protecting our Bill of Rights, decoupling corporate control from our regulatory agencies, which have become sockpuppets for the industries they're supposed to regulate.

winding down the war machine, using diplomacy instead of war. All of the things, personal freedoms, medical autonomy, bodily autonomy, all the things that the Democratic Party has traditionally represented and fought for, those are the issues that, you know, that are my priorities. Bobby, what did you make of the Supreme Court's decision yesterday on presidential immunity? Is that something you agreed with or disagreed with?

I think it's horrifying. I think, and I, you know, I'm not partisan about this. It helped Donald Trump, but that's not what I care about. I care about the fact that we now, you know, the executive now has this enormous power that I don't think was contemplated by the framers of our constitution. And I think it, in the hands of Democrats or Republicans at some point,

our country is going to land in the hands, there's going to be a demagogue who is occupying the Oval Office and the tools and the weapons that the Supreme Court have now put at that person's disposal are breathtaking. And I don't think, and I think it would be challenging for our democracy to survive in any form that we recognize if those, you know, every person

power that an executive is given will ultimately be abused to the maximum extent possible. And I think, you know, I think we all have to contemplate what happens when you unleash executive power to that extent. And I think it's very, very alarming.

Hi, I'm Katie Lowe's and I'm Guillermo Diaz. And now we're back with another season of our podcast, unpacking the toolbox where Guillermo and I will be rewatching the show to officially unpack season three of scandal. Unpredictable. You don't see it coming. It's a wild, wild ride. The twists and turns in season three mesmerizing, but

Also, we get to hang out with all of our old scandal friends like Bellamy Young, Scott Foley, Tony Goldwyn, Debbie Allen, Kerry Washington. So many people. Even more shocking assassinations from Papa and Mama Pope. And yes, Katie and I's famous teeth-pulling scene that kicks off a romance.

And it was Peak TV. This is new scandal content for your eyes, for your ears, for your hearts, for your minds. Well, suit up, gladiators. Grab your big old glass of wine and prepare yourselves for even more behind the scenes. Listen to Unpacking the Toolbox on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling, as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life and marriage. I don't think he knew how big it would be, how big the life I was given and live is.

I think he was like, oh, yeah, things come and go. But with me, it never came and went. Is she Donna Martin or a down-and-out divorcee? Is she living in Beverly Hills or a trailer park? In a town where the lines are blurred, Tori is finally going to clear the air in the podcast Misspelling. When a woman has nothing to lose, she has everything to gain. I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words. Yeah.

that I've said like in my head for like 16 years. Wild. Listen to Misspelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Angie Martinez. Check out my podcast where I talk to some of the biggest athletes, musicians, actors in the world. We go beyond the headlines and the soundbites to have real conversations about real life, death, love, and everything in between. This life right here, just finding myself, just relaxation, just not feeling stressed, just not feeling pressed. This is what I'm most proud of. I'm proud of Mary because I've been through hell and some horrible things.

that feeling that I had of inadequacy is gone. You're going to die being you. So you got to constantly work on who you are to make sure that the stars align correctly.

Life ain't easy and it's getting harder and harder. So if you have a story to tell, if you've come through some trials, you need to share it because you're going to inspire someone. You're going to give somebody the motivation to not give up, to not quit. Listen to Angie Martinez IRL on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What would your criteria be for appointing a SCOTUS justice? I don't believe I've seen you expound on that before. Like what would you look at in terms of Roe versus Wade, let's say in terms of Chevron, this immunity case and others, how would you evaluate considering that the next president is likely to appoint at least two Supreme Court justices to the court? Yeah, I mean, Sager, it's hard. I would really evaluate based upon character and a commitment to the Constitution

Chevron cuts both ways. Chevron was really, you know, I spent 40 years in the trenches fighting, suing administrative agencies and also suing large corporations. And Chevron was an important weapon for us because it gave the regulatory agency the capacity to

to fill the kind of interstitial places in the statutes that Congress just will never answer. And now that is gone, and every decision by the regulatory agency can now be litigated, which is going to enormously weaken the regulatory agencies. Chevron was a two-edged sword because when the regulatory agency becomes captured by corporations, it also functions to widen corporate power.

So, unfortunately, I think we're in a place in American history where, you know, I'm kind of neutral on the Chevron issue because I see the really good things that it did in the past, but I also see...

the very bad potential that it has right now where we're living in a situation where our regulatory agencies are just indentured servants and really subsidiaries of the corporations that they're supposed to regulate. - Returning to the campaign issue, if the Democrats do swap out Joe Biden for somebody else, would there be a criteria? What would your decision-making process be? Would you possibly drop out of the race? Are you gonna stay in this race no matter what, unless it's you? How would you evaluate that scenario?

Oh, I'm going to stay in the race, I think. You know, I mean, unless they appointed somebody who shared exactly, you know, all of my ambitions for the government, for dismantling the... Is there anyone, not you, that you could point to that represents somebody like that?

Not among the contenders. I think we all know who the contenders are. There's six or seven people who they could pick. And I think among those people, there is nobody that would lead me to drop out of the race. Let's say that probably the most likely is the current vice president, Kamala Harris. If you were up against her, what would your campaign message be as to why you're better than Kamala Harris?

I think Kamala has the same issues that President Biden has without the cognitive issues, is that she's very pro-war. She's supported censorship. She's supported this unprecedented assault on our Constitution where they close all the churches.

for a year without regulatory process, without scientific citation, without hearings or notice and comment rulemaking or environmental impact statements or anything. All of the other issues, shutting down jury trials, the Seventh Amendment,

losing 3.3 million businesses with no due process, no just compensation. The Constitution is critically important right now, particularly, Segar, because you have the rise of all these very intrusive surveillance technologies like AI, facial recognition systems, low altitude satellites that can look at every inch of the world every day, digital currencies, all these things that can be used

Number one, by corporations to maximize their profits and to commoditize us all and commoditize everything we think or do or say to each other, to every interaction, but also they can be used by government to surveil and control the populations and to actually with AI to alter our reality and really ultimately control our minds. I think it's really critically important at this point in history to raise the bulwarks, the barriers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

to make them impervious and impermeable. And I don't think that that's something that Kamala really grasps. What's your plan for the next ABC News debate scheduled in September? I'm sure you've looked at the qualifications, any legal ways that you'd be able to get on the ballot, perhaps by suing ABC. Have you been in contact? Tell us about that, because that possibly could be even more important than the previous debate that we just saw.

Yeah, I mean, we're hoping that they let me on the debate stage this time. So, you know, I think I'm going to qualify by all the traditional, I will be on the ballot in every state at that point. And my poll numbers are good enough. And if the Presidential Debating Commission, if they were still running it,

I would definitely be on the stage. So, you know, I need to look at their criteria and how that was selected and then, you know, make a decision about what to do. Unfortunately, Sagar, the FEC, Federal Election Commission, is a very weak agency. It's unresponsive. It's captured by the political parties. So,

It is another captured agency and the parties that are supposed to regulate it. Interestingly, the Gallup poll came out this week that showed that independent voters are now by far the biggest political demographic in our country. 51% of Americans self-identify as independents. Only 23% say they're Democrats. 25% say they're Republicans.

So you have these two minority parties who are running our whole political system, and most Americans do not feel like those parties represent their interests. I'm doing better among independents than either President Biden or President Trump. And it's kind of a joke to say that those voices should not be represented on the national stage. And I think we have to make that point

I'm grateful to you and to this show for giving me an alternative narrative that is, I think, the closest to the truth of what's happening in our political system right now because

The mainstream media is also – has been captured by the Democratic and Democratic Republican Party.

on our show because you would have been the contrast to President Biden as opposed to just President Trump. This does matter though in the ballot context. So as of six days ago, your campaign said you're on the ballot in eight separate states. So you said you're gonna be on the ballot in all, or no, you have an account for only 138 electoral votes. That's currently. But you said just now you're gonna be on the ballot all 50 by September. Can you assure us of that? Because as I understand it, there have been some ballot challenges.

and others. Tell us about that process as it's arguably the biggest obstacle to your campaign right now. Yeah, I mean, people say we're only about, I think, an eight or nine stage, which is true, but we have enough signatures to get on the ballot in more than half the states already. And they're all the hard states. So the easy states that, you know, are the ones that are left and we will be on all those ballots by the end of this month.

We're not gonna be, let me edit that remark. We won't be on the ballot because there are many of these states where the state will not let you get on the ballot, even if you have all the signatures

they won't process your application until the end of August. I see. We have, in most states, we have two to three times the number of signatures that we need. And these are not going to be susceptible to any authentic challenge. The DNC is probably going to make frivolous challenges to us in every state. So far, we've won every single one of those lawsuits.

We have now a war chest to fight those lawsuits against the DNC, and we're going to fight them all. But we will have all the ballot signatures that we need. As I said, by the end of June or the end of July, I mean the end of June or the first week, sorry, I'm getting mixed up about what month I am. I think it was in three weeks. By the third week of July, we'll be on the ballot. We'll have enough signatures to get on the ballot in every state.

And this is critical because as I understand, this is part of the way that CNN excluded you from the debate is even though you had the ballots to qualify, even though you technically weren't on the ballot, they were saying that you didn't. Even though, as you pointed out, President Biden and Trump, neither of them are officially on the ballot either.

because neither of them actually been nominated. So that was a real view, I think, into the way that the current process is rigged. I'm curious on your fundraising numbers. Have you seen a major increase? I believe your campaign just said you've raised, well, $46 million. Currently about $10 million of that from your vice president. Can you give us any insight into post-debate considering the amount of political interest that's spiked in this country since? I honestly don't know the numbers.

I do know this, that on the day of the debate, we had a record day fundraising. And I've heard, but I can't guarantee you this, I've heard that the fundraising has been very, very good since the debate. Okay. All right. And the other thing is that political parties can raise over a million dollars per donor.

And we're only, we're restricted to $6,600 per donor. But because we are now on the ballot for existing political parties, the National Law Party, the We the People Party, it gives us now the capacity to raise that limit to 47, I think it's $47,000, maybe $43,000 per donor.

So it allows us now to go back to our donors and our maximum donors and tell them that there's a new maximum. And so I think our fundraising is going to be fine.

All right. Last question for you, sir, because I know that you're running on a short time. Vanity Fair came out with a major profile today. I want to give you a chance to respond to this. There's a photo circulating, I believe, of you posing with what looks like a dog and also a barbecued dog. I'm not going to show the picture as a dog lover. I know you have pets yourself and also a sexual assault allegation from one of your former nannies. So I want to give you a chance to respond to that. Yeah.

Sorry. The article is a lot of garbage. The picture that they said is of me eating a dog. It's actually me eating a goat in Patagonia on a whitewater trip many years ago on the Fulayfu River.

They say there is an expert. They have an expert that has identified that as a dog carcass. Yeah, it's just not true. Oh, and, you know, in terms of the other allegations, I listen. I've said this from the beginning. I am not a church boy. I am not running like that. I said in my I had a very, very rambunctious youth.

I said in my announcement speech that I have so many skeletons in my closet that if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world. So, you know, this Vanity Fair is recycling 30-year-old stories, and I'm not going to comment on the details of any of them, but

I am who I am. - You're talking there about the nanny situation. I mean, I do have to ask her, I mean, are you denying it or not? - I'm not gonna comment on it. - All right, well, I gave you the opportunity and officially it's a goat. I didn't know necessarily about, what did they say? It's a spare rib of a canine? I think that's what they said for their identification, but we've got it from you. I'll let the anatomy experts be the ones

who can determine that. Sir, I very much appreciate you joining us for these questions. It's been a big interview for us and we wish to see you on all 50 ballots and including on the debate stage because that's what the American people deserve. So thank you. Thank you very much, Sager. Absolutely.

Hi, I'm Katie Lowes. And I'm Guillermo Diaz. And we're the hosts of Unpacking the Toolbox, the Scandal Rewatch podcast where we're talking about all the best moments of the show. Mesmerizing. But also, we get to hang out with all of our old Scandal friends like Bellamy Young, Scott Foley, Tony Goldwyn, Debbie Allen, Kerry Washington. Well, suit up, gladiators. Grab your big old glass of wine and prepare yourselves for an even more behind-the-scenes Scandal.

stories with Unpacking the Toolbox. Listen to Unpacking the Toolbox on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life in marriage. I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words that I've said like in my head for like 16 years.

wild. Listen to Misspelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Angie Martinez and on my podcast I like to talk to everyone from Hall of Fame athletes to iconic musicians about getting real on some of the complications and challenges of real life.

I had the best dad and I had the best memories and the greatest experience. And that's all I want for my kids as long as they can have that. Listen to Angie Martinez IRL on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.