A leaked video of a phone call between former President Donald J. Trump and the independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the day after the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump offered a behind-the-scenes look into the former president’s efforts to coax Mr. Kennedy out of the race and into his camp.
The video was first posted early on Tuesday morning by Mr. Kennedy’s eldest son, Bobby Kennedy III, and then swiftly deleted, according to screenshots of the original message and a person briefed on the matter. The younger Mr. Kennedy criticized Mr. Trump for his vice-presidential pick and said he wanted to expose his “real opinion” on vaccinations.
The video provides a glimpse of the private relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kennedy, who have long been friendly, though Mr. Trump has publicly criticized Mr. Kennedy during the campaign.
Mr. Kennedy apologized for the leaked video almost immediately on X, the same social media site where the video first appeared on Tuesday morning.
“When President Trump called me I was taping with an in-house videographer,” he wrote. “I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately. I am mortified that this was posted.”
Over Mr. Kennedy’s speaker phone, Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee, can first be heard describing scientifically baseless concerns about vaccinations — an issue Mr. Kennedy is closely associated with — expressing disbelief at the volume of vaccinations given to infants.
