Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr claimed on Monday that Donald Trump’s “emissaries” had asked him to be the former president’s running mate.
The attorney and Covid-19 conspiracy theorist claimed he turned down the offer and said it suggested the ex-president was feeling threatened by him.
His claims follow a series of attacks by Mr Trump on Truth Social, including the launch of a website by a pro-Trump political action committee called Make America Great Again Inc (Maga Inc), that called Mr Kennedy a “radical liberal” and “radical f***ing Kennedy”.
Mr Kennedy wrote on X: “President Trump calls me an ultra-left radical. I’m soooo liberal that his emissaries asked me to be his VP. I respectfully declined the offer”.
“I am against President Trump, and President Biden can’t win. Judging by his new website, it looks like President Trump knows who actually can beat him.”
A top aide of Mr Trump disputed Mr Kennedy’s claim and denied approaching him to join his ticket as vice president.
Chris LaCivita, Trump’s co-campaign manager, said: “Re-upping this from January … was true then and it’s true now, calling Mr Kennedy ‘a leftie loonie that would never be approached to be on the ticket..sorry!’”
Last week Mr Trump lashed out at Mr Kennedy for being too far left in a video post.
“But he’s got some nice things about him. I happen to like him,” Mr Trump said in the clip. “Unfortunately he is about the ‘Green New Scam’ because he believes in that and a lot of people don’t.”
He called him better than president Joe Biden, saying “RFK Jr’s going to be taking away votes from Crooked Joe Biden”.
“He’s much better than Biden. If I were a Democrat, I’d vote for RFK Jr every single time over Biden.”
