In a newsy new interview with Brian Tyler Cohen, RFK Jr. for the first time committed to releasing his medical records. This commitment comes on the heels of a New York Times story that revealed a parasite had eaten part of RFK Jr.’s brain and that he suffered cognitive damage from years of mercury poisoning. RFK Jr. also for the first time discussed having talked with Timothy Mellon- his largest donor that he shares with Donald Trump- and spoke to why he’s backing his spoiler candidacy.

Elsewhere in the interview, RFK Jr. stumbled on questions about his abortion stance and false claim that many women seek elective abortions in the 8th and 9th months of pregnancy. He struggled to articulate a credible path to victory. And, like Donald Trump, he committed to pulling federal funding from schools that implement vaccine mandates.

Key excerpts are below. 

KEY EXCERPTS: 

On Releasing His Medical Records: 

[22:34:00] 

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “Well, you know, President Biden obviously released his medical records when when Donald Trump was president, he released his as well. Would you release your medical records to give the American public a full look at any cognitive problems?” 

RFK JR.: “Yeah, sure I will. I’m happy to give my medical records to the same extent that the other candidates did.” 

[22:47:00] 

On Agreeing with Trump to Punish Schools that Require Vaccines: 

[27:34:00]

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “Donald Trump has come out and said that he wouldn’t he wouldn’t fund schools that that mandated certain vaccines. Do you agree with that decision?”



RFK JR.: “Yeah I do.”

[27:41:00]

On Disparity in Polling Compared to Other Candidates: 

[1:10:00- 2:04:00]

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “Well, let’s talk about the presidential run more broadly. Nationally, you are based on an aggregate of polling according to Decision Desk HQ. You’re at about 8.5% right now, down from 19% in September. In Texas, it looks like just below 10% right now, down from 12%. In Florida you’re at about 7.5%, down from 11%. Nevada, you’re at 9% down from 11. And in Michigan, you’re at about 8%, down from 26%. So what’s the path to victory here?” 

RFK JR.: “Yeah. You know, we don’t, um, believe those polling results. And there’s actually, uh, a very good article in The Hill today that talks about how the polling companies, the polling establishments, have changed their methodologies to ask questions in a way that makes — that dampens our poll results.” 

On His Path to Victory: 

[03:51:00]

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: Because obviously, if you are looking to actually win this presidential election, you need the support. You need to win one of at least the big states. You need to win California, Texas, Florida. Do you think that you have a path to victory to to win one of the states? Because right now, I mean, I’m looking at the polling. You’re you’re at roughly around 10% in Texas. Trump is at 46, Biden’s at 36. California, Biden’s at 48, Trump’s at 30, you’re at eight. Florida, Trump’s at 47, Biden’s at 38, you’re at seven and a half. So even if the methodology isn’t to your liking, I mean, there’s a massive disparity here between you and the other two candidates.” 

RFK JR.: “Oh, again, you’re reading from a methodology that is not correct. If you look at my polling firm and you assume it’s 17 or 18%, I’m five and a half months out, all I have to do is get the 34% to win. So I’m thinking all I have to do is take a few points away from both the other candidates.” 

[4:49:00]

On Dropping out of the Race if There’s No Path to Victory: 

[07:18:00]

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “But if he, but if he doesn’t sign the pledge and you don’t see a path to victory —” 

RFK JR.: “Of course I’m not going to drop out if he doesn’t sign the pledge. You know, I’m more likely — he cannot beat President Trump. I can beat President Trump. I’m not a spoiler. If you — the spoiler is somebody who cannot win and who is going to disrupt the expectation of somebody who can.”

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “And with all due respect, I mean, there’s not a single there’s not a single national poll from any pollster — I know that you I know that you take issue with, with their methodology, but there’s not a single poll from a national poll, pollster that exists, that shows you even within, within striking distance. I mean, in most of these polls, even ones that are that, that aren’t friendly toward President Biden, I mean, there’s still a five-time disparity between you and him.”

RFK JR.: “Uh, well, you’re wrong about that.” 

[07:41:00]

On Trump’s Largest Donor, Timothy Mellon, Being His Largest Donor: 

[09:24:00] 

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “If he’s giving $25 million to Trump and to you, and this is a Trump-aligned donor and he’s your biggest donor to two superPACs right now, do you do you have any relationship with this person? Do you know why he’s giving you this massive amount of money? Because clearly this is having his support behind you. If he’s also supporting Trump at the same time.”

RFK JR.: “You would have to ask Timothy Mellon that with the superPAC, I’m not allowed to coordinate at all with the superPAC.” 


BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “But have you have had a relationship with him.?”

RFK Jr.: “With Tim Mellon. I met Tim Mellon twice.” 

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “Okay. And, and that was enough to — there’s, there’s no other inclination as to why he’s donating?”



RFK JR.: “I welcome money from everybody.” 

[10:55:00] 

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “I think the point is obvious just from a layman’s perspective. If you have a Trump donor who’s also propping up the superPAC affiliated with you, that it would suggest that that person wants you on the ballot because he would perceive it as deriving benefit for Donald Trump.”

RFK JR.: “Well, that is what you say, I don’t think that is obvious. [CROSSTALK] Here’s what, here’s what I believe from talking to Tim Mellon. I think Tim Mellon would prefer me to be president of the United States because, he thinks that I would make a better president and that if he, if I’m not going to be president, that he would prefer President Trump to President Biden.”

[11:33:00]

On Abortion: 

[16:30:00]

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “In a recent podcast, I believe it was a week ago, uh, with Matt and Shane, you said that you support these restrictions because you learned of women having and this is a quote, ‘a huge amount of abortions up until you know what it would be at the late term.’ So days before birth. And this is a point that a lot of anti-choice Republicans make, but none of them have been able to substantiate it. So, my question is, what’s the proof here? Like, do you think that women who are in good health with healthy pregnancies are just walking into doctor’s offices asking for abortions two days before birth?”

RFK JR. “Yeah, my assumption was that that was not true, and that’s why I changed my position. My original position was that it should be a woman’s choice right up until the ninth month. And my assumption was that, um, that no woman is going to carry a baby for nine months and then get an abortion, unless there are extenuating circumstances.”

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “And you don’t believe that, and you don’t believe that.”

RFK JR.: “I mean, you want me to finish.”

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “Yes.”

RFK JR.: “All right. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, for example, that the baby had a disease that would ensure that the baby would only live a couple of hours, or maybe a couple of weeks in agonizing pain, or if the mother’s, uh, life was at risk. And in those cases, the last thing that you would want is a bureaucrat or state government to come in and, and mess with that decision. What I learned was that, there are a tremendous number of elective abortions at the last stage, and I can’t tell you why that happens. But all I can tell you is the data that we’re looking at that was shown to me indicates that that is true. And therefore, you know, I changed my position, which I always say to people, I will never change the position because people are angry at me, or because people defame me. The one thing that will cause me to change my position is facts that show that my worldview does not account for, and my policies do not account for, the reality.”

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “Well, you know, on that point, I mean, do you know what percent of women are getting abortions after 21 weeks? And this isn’t a gotcha.”

RFK JR.: “I don’t know the exact percentage.”

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “So the exact percentage is 0.9% of these of women who are getting abortions after 21 weeks. So a minuscule number of percentage of women, it’s 99.1% of women who are not. The most recent study from 2022 —”

RFK JR.: “And what percentage of those are elective abortions?”

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “So the most recent study from 2022 of patients seeking these late term abortions found they fell into two buckets. It was either fetal anomalies or health risks to the mother or women who didn’t know they were pregnant. And then the other bucket is women who experience barriers to abortion services earlier in the pregnancy. So, the question then becomes, when you say that there are a huge amount of abortions that would necessitate some federal intervention. Where is the proof of that?”

RFK JR.: “Well, you know, I would have to look at the data again, which I’m happy to do. Um, but the data that we were shown was that there were, were a large number of abortions that were elective in the end, at the end of pregnancy. So, if there, you know, if there are any abortions at that point, it’s wrong. You know, it’s viable child at nine months. And, you know, let’s say nine months and one day should you be able to abort? I mean, do you think you should be able to abort a perfectly healthy child at nine months?”

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “But there’s no evidence that women are doing that. That’s, that’s, that’s the whole basis for what I’m asking. When you impose federal interventions against women who, you know, the, the, um, the data show are dealing with fetal anomalies —” [CROSSTALK] “No government bureaucrat should be litigating that. That’s a decision between a woman and her doctor because these issues are personal.”

RFK JR.: “And so — here’s what should make you happy, is that the only abortions that I would limit at that time would be elective abortions. I would not abort — if there was a medical reason for the abortion. I don’t think it should be — I think that should be between the mother and the doctor. If there’s a lot and, you know, those would be, uh, regulated by the state if there are only 1 or 2 then those are the ones that would be regulated.”

On the Safety of the COVID-19 Vaccine: 

[29:57:00]

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “I think, I mean, I think I don’t have the numbers right in front of me, but the numbers are pretty clear in terms of the efficacy and the safety of this Covid vaccine. And it was it was it was it was it was used on the biggest, on the largest scale of any vaccine in America in the history of the world. And again, those numbers are pretty, pretty clear in terms of the efficacy of this vaccine, in terms of the number of hospitalizations and deaths for people who didn’t get the vaccine versus those who did get the vaccine.”

RFK JR.: “Okay, Brian, you know what? You’re, you’re talking about data that does not exist.” 

[36:21:00] 

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “So I have something here from the CDC. Vaccinated Americans are up to 14 times less likely to die from Covid. That was from the CDC and May 23rd.”

RFK Jr.: “Right. And, you know, those studies that CDC cranks out are modeling studies. They’re not data studies. They’re not they’re not observational studies. They’re not epidemiological studies. They’re studies that show that and start out with the premise, we think this is how many people are saved by the vaccine and they model that. But there’s no there’s no actual real world data. And they use that to hoodwink you, Brian. That’s how they hoodwinked the American press. They use these phony studies done by biostitutes, which are these emergent, you know, mercenary scientists, who you know what they say —”

BRIAN TYLER COHEN: “There’s there are a ton of there is a ton of, uh, data out there that shows from people who owe their who owe their lives to the fact that they were able to get that they were able to get vaccines. You have people who weren’t —”

RFK JR.: “How can you do that study? Explain to me how you do that study. How do you do a study when somebody says, oh, I got the vaccine, therefore I’m alive today. That’s not science. There’s plenty of people like me who didn’t get it and are alive today. Should I say that? I didn’t get it because I’m alive today. Because I didn’t get it.”

[38:16:00]