It had the appearance of a mini-political scandal that could be a great opportunity for both Joe Biden and Donald Trump to take down presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
No, it wasn’t exactly on the scale of Watergate or January 6, or even Hunter’s missing laptop, but it was enough to make the independent-turned-Democrat the butt of late-night TV jokes.
Because there on TikTok, for all to see, Kennedy had left a “Wow” comment, complete with two laughing heart emojis on a video of a woman showing her behind her in barely-there black shorts.
There could be no doubt about it: In fact, the message posted in September 2022 came from Kennedy’s blue-checked verified account.
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared to be caught lusting after scantily clad women on TikTok after a risqué comment from September 2022 was linked to his official account
The salacious comment resurfaced after users noticed the verified account in the comments section of a video in which OnlyFans model Tyler Idol showed off her backside in tiny shorts
A screen capture shows that RFK Jr.’s account. – showing the blue verification check mark in full screen – in September 2022 wrote “Wow” with two heart emojis on the video
After all, the thrice-married Kennedy, 70, comes from a family with a long history of womanizing and boorish behavior.
And there it was, in black and white, on the site of Tyler Idol, a porn actress who celebrated her birthday by carefully placing her derriere clad in skimpy shorts on a cake and twerking the resulting crumbs and icing into the camera, was Kennedy’s awestruck comment.
But — wait a minute, said panicked campaign staffers. Not everything is what it looks like. It couldn’t be Kennedy, they said.
He didn’t even have a TikTok account until seven months after he was supposedly impressed by Tyler Idol’s curvaceous caboose.
And now, instead of making anyone think their candidate has eyes for anyone other than his wife, Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines, the Kennedy campaign has named and shamed a young campaign staffer for leaving the message.
They identified him as social media manager Rijoun Murphy, 33, of Georgia.
So if Murphy was to blame, why was it on Kennedy’s account? Well, that’s more complicated, Kennedy spokeswoman Stefanie Spear explained.
“When Mr. Kennedy announced his run for president in April 2023, the team wanted it to be broadcast on every social media platform, including TikTok,” she said.
“However, TikTok does not allow live streaming for accounts with fewer than 1,000 followers.”
But the Kennedy campaign has named and shamed a young campaign worker for leaving the comment, identifying him as social media manager Rijoun Murphy, 33, of Georgia — who owned the account before turning it over to the campaign.
The comment generated responses from other users who joked about RFK Jr.’s seemingly cheeky comment
The woman, who lives in Austin, Texas, has an OnlyFans account, which includes “nude photos/videos, masturbation videos and more,” available to subscribers for $12 per month.
Idol’s TikTok bio says she’s into “fitness and content creation” and includes a link to her other platforms. She appears to be in her twenties
And because Kennedy didn’t have an account, he couldn’t immediately have 1,000 people following him — even though he hoped to get a little more than that number to vote for him in November.
The social media manager decided to transfer his account, which had more than 1,000 followers, to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stream Kennedy’s announcement on TikTok,” Spear said.
According to Spear, this meant that all of Murphy’s previous personal comments were relabeled as coming from the Kennedy campaign account — including the amorous message to the porn star.
Another Kennedy aide reached out to TikTok for help in defusing the burgeoning scandal. “We are dealing with a strange situation here and need your help to determine what happened,” an aide identified as “Amaryllis” emailed.
She said the campaign assumed Kennedy’s comment was photoshopped, but then realized it wasn’t.
“Given that other social media platforms do not allow users to change their names without documentation of the name change, we were confused as to what was going on,” Amaryllis added.
But then she answered her own question.
‘Rijoun concluded that since RFK had not had an account before, he would have no followers on day one and therefore decided that he would reuse his own account, which had just over 1,000 followers, to ensure that he could complete his task.
“In the haste of his preparation, it had never occurred to him that any previous comments he had made would subsequently be attributed to RFK.”
According to campaign officials, Murphy decided to transfer his account — which had more than 1,000 followers — to the presidential candidate to stream Kennedy’s announcement on TikTok.
The politician hopeful has been married to actress Cheryl Hines, 58, since 2014. They are pictured together at a campaign event in October
The couple posed on the red carpet with RFK Jr.’s son Conor during HBO’s ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Finale Season Premiere on Tuesday
Tyler Idol posted the short selfie video to the social media site on September 3, 2022, with the caption: “Love the next day pump.”
She posts several times a day for her 701,300 followers, often in tight-fitting clothes and with challenging dance moves.
Her particular talent seems to lie in moving her ample backside close to the camera – although she does say that her OnlyFans account features ‘nudes/videos, masturbation videos and much more’ for paying subscribers.
RFK Jr. married his second wife Mary Kathleen Richardson in 1994, with whom he had four children. She died by suicide in 2012 during their divorce.
DailyMail.com decided it might be better not to verify that.
Murphy is still very involved and helps produce the Black History Month event.
He is also a DJ who runs his own music production company in Atlanta, Di-VerZe, and has a degree in Computer Information Systems from Savannah State University, according to a 2020 interview he gave to VoyageATL magazine.
He said he turned down a job at Cigna Healthcare in Pennsylvania to care for his ailing mother in his hometown of Stone Mountain, Georgia, and saved money to start his business with tips as a doorman at a Sheraton hotel.
After being hired as social media manager for the Kennedy campaign, he posted to his Instagram page photos and videos he took at campaign events, including footage from a campaign trip to Boston last April with the caption, “I always pray like This’.
Messages left for Murphy were not returned.
But if Murphy’s eye for beauty almost embarrassed his chosen candidate, it’s Tyler Idol who seems to be the big winner in this sad story.
After all, she could have boasted of supporting a presidential candidate two years ago.
As one user on the site put it after seeing the comment on the Kennedy account: “Bruh. Imagine if they withdraw this receipt during the debates.’