Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joins Glenn for an exclusive interview after he partially suspended his presidential campaign to endorse Donald Trump in key battleground states. RFK Jr. explains why he made that decision and how the Democrat Party did everything it could — including hiring private investigators — to keep him off the ballot. He also discusses whether he fears for his life without Secret Service protection, whether his father, RFK, and uncle, JFK, would be accepted by the modern Democratic party, and which 3-letter agency he would like to transform during a second Trump administration.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Robert F. Kennedy Jr joins the program. Now, from -- from someplace. Where are you, Robert?
ROBERT: Portland, Maine. I'm actually driving to see Tucker.
GLENN: Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's way out there.
So, Robert, I don't know if you saw my X response to you, this weekend. I doubt you did. But I --
ROBERT: I did. It was beautifully written, Glenn. And I was so happy to see that. And I was so happy to have the same division that you had, of people coming together in our country. And trying to understand people you have people who disagree with you on issues, are not your enemies. They can still be your brothers and sisters.
GLENN: Right. Well, I wanted to ask you, because I -- as I said in that, you know, you don't risk your life for things you don't believe in.
And you've had Secret Service pulled from you now, by this administration, which I think is reprehensible.
How uncomfortable are you, with that, decision?
ROBERT: I'm -- I'm okay. I'm doing -- listen, I'm going to do what I'm going to do. My life is in God's hands.
So -- and I'm okay, with, you know -- I'm going to do what I'm going to do whether I have doubt or not.
GLENN: Right.
ROBERT: You know, I think it's a -- the fact that they -- they -- I've been denied Secret Service protection for so long, which is troubling for our country because it's part of the weaponization of the agencies, the politicization of the agencies. When my father became attorney general in 1961, early 1961, his first week in office, he called all of the division chiefs, the Department of Justice together. And he said, the one thing that we're never going to do is ask if somebody -- if a defendant, potential defendant is Republican or Democrat.
The country needs to know, that justice is blind. That our institutions are not partisan.
And that's what makes America really great. Is that government is -- you know, these institutions are supposed to be purged.
GLENN: Right. Right. But they're not.
The reason why I ask you about the Secret Service is, you didn't just leave the party and run against Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.
Now you've taken the real extremist position. To endorse Donald Trump.
What pushed you into that move?
Why -- why -- what scares you about the Kamala Harris victory, that would move you to endorse Donald Trump?
ROBERT: Yeah. I mean, our polling, from the beginning was saying that we were hurting Donald Trump much more than we hurt the Democrats.
So our polling consistently showed that about 57 percent, or 60 percent of our voters would vote for Trump, if I left. And so it was odd that President Trump and the Republican Party never really attacked me. And, you know -- was not trying to keep me off of ballots. They were deploying, you know, private investigators to take up every --
GLENN: Right.
ROBERT: Publicizing. Which is what the Democrats have -- this entire organization that was -- that was designed to destroy -- character assassinate me. And keep me on the ballots.
And actually, it was ironic. Because I actually hurt the Trump organization. I hurt the Republican Party much more. When it became clear to me, that I was not going to be allowed on the debating stage and the mainstream media had successfully stonewalled me. So, you know, I gave two live interviews on the major networks, in 16 months. Ross Perot had 34 interviews, in ten months.
I only had two live interviews on ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN. And so I was being stonewalled there.
I was not going to be allowed on the debating stage. And that really was my path to victory. I could not talk to most Americans. So it became clear to me, that we did not have a clear path at the White House.
And that my state in the race, that the likelihood was that my presence in the race, would get the -- vice president Harris elected.
Vice president Harris for me, is a -- if you look at her speech at the Democrat convention.
You know, it was a Deep State speech.
She was preceded weirdly by the CIA officials who were speaking at the election. At the democratic election.
And had material elections.
It was a neocon speech. That was about more wars. And more wars.
And that is the only policy she's really defined herself as.
GLENN: Right.
ROBERT: And I think we're so close to nuclear war right now. So close to nuclear does and the Trump administration.
The Trump -- President Trump reached out to me, immediately after his shooting, and we began talking. We had a series of meetings by telephone and in person and in Minneapolis, and then at Mar-a-Lago.
And talked about the things that surprised me, that we have in common. That he wants to end the Ukraine war immediately. He wants to protect children's health. He wants to end the censorship. And those are the three principle reasons that I got in the race.
And he asked me, you know, not only to join this election, but to help him in his administration, to make sure they're able to accomplish some of those goals.
And the unity party, where we would be able to criticize each other on issues. On which we disagree. But continue to work for greater good, on the issues that really unite Americans. And that are good for us.
GLENN: That's the way it should be. That's the way it should be.
So I talked to Don Jr.
And he told me, that he wanted you to pick a three-letter agency. That you could blow -- that you could blow up.
Those were his words.
Which three-letter agency, would you be most inclined to say, President Trump, please, I would like this. This agency.
ROBERT: Yeah. You know, we haven't really discussed that.
And, you know, there's a number of agencies.
I mean, I've talked about it before. Many of the agencies, from the CIA, to HHS, et cetera. But we're -- you know, we're focused on kind of the larger theme of the administration, which is public health, restoring America's health. Make America healthy again. So that our country will be unified.
We're to love our children more than we hate each other. And we're letting our children down, as you know, Glenn. Sixty-seven percent of them now have chronic disease. Seventy-seven percent of American kids cannot get in the military because of health reasons.
And, you know, this is our national security emergency. It's a moral crisis for our nation. And we are poisoning our nation.
GLENN: You know, I think your time has come on a lot of this. I think Americans are looking at the processed food and a lot of stuff, that the pharmaceutical companies are doing. And, you know, the right never looked at that stuff.
Big Pharma. It's fine. That's changed dramatically since COVID.
And I think people -- I mean, I see this, happening with conservatives. Where they're becoming the -- they're becoming the, you know, that used to be on the Democrat side.
A little granola. And, look, I want to get away from, you know, processed foods.
ROBERT: Yeah. You know, it's really funny. The time I really noticed this change is when Tucker Carlson, you know, did a whole show on endocrine disrupters. Endocrine disrupters are a class of chemicals that interfere with fertility and sexual development. And they're like PCBs. And PFOAs, which are flame retardants. Which are now ubiquitous in the environment.
Oh, and I've heard for 30 years, I've been trying to get Republicans to pay attention to this. I've been suing those companies. And only the Democrats would talk about it. And what Dr. Carlson did, is the Democrats rained holy hell down on him. And said, oh -- oh, he's blaming chemicals for turning people gay, which, of course, he wasn't doing.
But they completely ignored the issue. And they -- they turned it into a tribal issue. And, you know, so now the Democrats are on the other side of that. They're applauding the chemicals in our food. They're applauding the chemicals -- they're applauding the dominance of pharmaceuticals in food, food processing companies -- of the agencies that are supposed to regulate them.
GLENN: Right.
ROBERT: It's such a turnaround. And, you know, the Republicans are now the party -- the clean environment, the antitoxic party.
And the party of -- that's protecting children's health, rather than corporate profit taking in the mercantile interest of these companies, that are poisoning the entire nation.
GLENN: You know, I -- I -- I'm wondering if you moving over to endorse Donald Trump is going to make -- make regular Democrats.
Not the crazy Democrats. And the ones, many of them in the administration. But the average Democrat that loves their country and, you know, wants to get along, et cetera, et cetera.
I wonder if this is going to be the beginning of a movement and a recognition. A recognizing of how corrupt and how antidemocratic they are. I mean, what they're doing to Jill Stein and Cornell West.
That's nothing to do with the word democracy. The people claiming to save democracy are doing everything they can, to be, you know, almost Putin in the election.
ROBERT: Yeah. You know, the Democratic Party (another language) in Greek means people.
And so it means the party that trusts people. And the Democratic Party no longer trusts the American people. And that's why they -- their big worry is about disinformation and misinformation.
Well, you know, that's not the government's job.
If the government's job is to trust the people, and give them all the information they need. But start censoring information. As opposed to idea that they have to now censor information.
Is an indicator that they do not trust the people.
And they don't -- they're not letting her talk.
Everything is about this ironclad control.
Interest the people to vote for their candidate. So they had to get me off the ballot, using the judicial system.
And Donald Trump off the ballot. Using the judicial system.
And their -- it's all about a -- you know, ironclad control of the outcomes and no longer having any trust in the people of our country.
And, you know, there have been a series of political alignments. We align throughout American history, about four or five, we align this. And one of are those happening right now.
It's really interesting to be living through it, and we have kind of a front row to see it.
GLENN: Yeah. I know this would be only your opinion. It's a little unfair for me to ask. I've often thought, that your uncle would not be welcome in this party today. That his views would be I think right-wing extremist to this party today. Do you think your brother and your -- or sorry, your father and your uncle would be welcome in the Democratic Party today?
ROBERT: I don't think so. I mean, both of them. Kind of the central thrust of their -- of their policy entrance was -- was deep in the country. My uncle was asked by one of his best friends, Bradley, who ran the National Post. What do you want on your gravestone?
And he said, he -- my uncle immediately said, he kept the peace. He said, the primary job of a president of the United States was to keep the country out of war.
And he never sent a combat troop abroad during his thousand days in office. My father, ran against the Vietnam War. And was killed during an election.
So those are issues that, you know, both of them died for.
And the Democratic Party has now become the Neocon party. It's become the party of war.
And worse -- twice in -- in real dollars, we're spending twice on military. We're at the height of the Cold War, and that money is not being spent for national defense. It's being spent for international domination, and it's not a good policy. And it's not working.
GLENN: Well, Robert, I appreciate you pulling off to the side of the road.
And I know you have to get back on the road.
But thank you for talking to us.
And thank you for your courage. I think your speech on Friday, which CNN broke away from almost immediately. I thought it was very powerful. Very powerful.
Thank you!
ROBERT: Thank you very much, Glenn. Good to talk to you.