Ron DeSantis vowed to “burn the National Institutes of Health to the ground” if elected president, Democratic challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims.
RFK Jr., John F. Kennedy’s cousin, made the remarks about the pro-lockdown agency in an interview with comedian and conspiracy theorist Russell Brand.
The 69-year-old told of the British actor podcast that he had met with Florida’s governor during the pandemic to discuss a possible tilt in the White House.
“We talked about him possibly running for president, and I said ‘how would you handle the NIH? And he said, ‘I’ll burn it to the ground.’
Kennedy claimed he had met DeSantis before
Self-proclaimed Democratic presidential nominee RFK Jr. is a regular guest on British comedian Russell Brand’s podcast
Anthony Fauci has found himself at the center of criticism from conservatives for his support for lockdowns and wearing face masks
The self-proclaimed serial womanizer gave no details about when the alleged encounter took place.
But he praised DeSantis for doing the “good stuff” in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Florida’s governor largely refused to impose sweeping lockdowns on the Sunshine State, preferring to keep businesses open.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the DeSantis campaign for comment.
Anthony Fauci, now 82, became the face of the pandemic as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
But he came under fire from conservatives for supporting Covid lockdowns and the use of face masks.
In yet another rambling intervention, RFK. Jr claimed that Fauci and the NIH were just “sock puppets” for vaccine makers and big drug companies.
The notorious anti-vaxxer told the 47-year-old Brand that all U.S. health agencies have “big pharma” busted.
Kennedy has also lashed out at the “military industrial complex” and US foreign interventions abroad since launching his campaign in Boston last month.
The member of “America’s Royal Family” repeatedly repeats false and often debunked conspiracy theories that FDA-approved jabs are not safe.
He has made the completely baseless claim that childhood vaccinations are associated with autism.
His views have caused him to be ostracized by members of his own family who have shunned him ever since he compared vaccine mandates to atrocities committed by the Nazis.
Social media campaigns by the environmental advocate’s former anti-vaccine platform, Children’s Health Defense, were taken down by Instagram and Facebook last year.
Kennedy’s personal account had already been deleted in 2021 as part of a crackdown by parent company Meta against what it called “false and misleading” information about Covid.
His sister Kerry Kennedy, who heads Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the international rights group founded by their mother, Ethel, said her brother has sometimes removed some of the content at her request.
She told the Associated Press in a 2021 interview that her brother is “completely wrong on this matter and very dangerous.”
His anti-vaccine charity has thrived, with revenues more than doubling to $6.8 million in 2020, according to filings with charitable regulators.
RFK has little chance of winning the nomination along with fellow no-hoper Marianne Williamson, a self-help author.
It would pit the pair against incumbent Joe Biden, who recently expressed his intention to rejoin.
But the threat of a primary challenge would put the 80-year-old’s record under scrutiny during his first term in office.
Polls say Democrats and independent voters say Biden is too old to run again.
But only one elected sitting president has ever lost his party’s nomination for a second term.
Kennedy’s presidential run will also put a new spotlight on his colorful personal life.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has faced criticism for his anti-vaxx views, officially challenges President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination
He launched his campaign on April 19 at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston with his wife Cheryl Hines, the Curb Your Enthusiasm actress.
Robert F Kennedy Jr. is the son of Robert F. Kennedy (left), the late Attorney General and U.S. Senator who was assassinated in 1968 during a presidential run. He is the cousin of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963
Hines was introduced to RFK Jr in 2012 by Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Larry David
The father of six married his third wife, Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines, in 2014.
He filed for divorce in 2012 from his second wife Mary, the mother of four of his children: Conor, Finny, Kyra and Aidan.
Four days later, she would be hanged at home in Mount Kisco, New York, allegedly convinced her ex-husband was having an affair.
Kennedy allegedly proposed to Mary while still married to his first wife, Emily Black, whom he separated in 1992 and divorced two years later.
In 2013, the New York Post managed to obtain a leaked copy of one of Kennedy’s 2001 diaries detailing his battle with his “lust demons.”
The squalid 398-page diary, detailing his day-to-day political activities, also included a scorecard of more than two dozen sexual conquests collected behind his second wife’s back.
They contained the women’s names, but had numbers from 1 to 10 next to each item.
The codes corresponded to sexual acts, with 10 meaning full sexual intercourse.
In the entries, Kennedy repeatedly portrays himself as a victim hopelessly seduced by a series of women.
“I narrowly escaped being robbed by a double team of [two women]. It was tempting, but I prayed and God gave me the strength to say no,” he wrote on February 6 of that year.
On May 21, he writes about hosting a dinner party for Leonardo DiCaprio, bringing the actor to town.
He then met someone else in Manhattan, who claimed he was “robbed on his way home” and recorded a 10 with a woman’s name next to it.
“I have to do better,” he wrote at the time.
In another message, Kennedy promises to “avoid the company of women.” You don’t have the strength to resist their charms’ and to be ‘humble like a monk’. Keep your hands to yourself. Turn your eyes away.’
The Kennedy scion began dating actress Hines in 2011 amid a bitter argument with his estranged wife Mary over custody and finances that ended when she tragically committed suicide.