'You're trying to get me to hate on President Trump': RFK Jr. spars with MSNBC host
In a lengthy sit-down with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., MSNBC's Ari Melber on "The Beat" confronted the third-party candidate about his suspected bromance with former President Donald Trump, his opponent and presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 election.
Melber mentioned how RFK Jr. "seems warm" to Trump and "he is clearly warm towards you."
"I would definitely disagree with that," he said. "He just called me a 'radical effing liberal." (A Republican group reportedly is launch that profane campaign.)
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Melber doubled down. "But he also said you're a common sense guy and you guys in public have exchanged warm words; I think that's fair. And you said you're proud —
"I have said good things about President Biden too," RFK interjected.
Melber then confirmed that Kennedy voted for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she ran against Trump in 2016.
"What, since 2016, in his first term and then him refusing to leave office peacefully and January 6th and everything since then has made you warmer towards him," asked Melber.
Said Kennedy: "I can explain I'm running against him so obviously I don't want him to be president of the United States and I don't think he did a good job.
"And if you go look at my speeches, my statements, I am not mean-spirited and I think President Trump's and President Biden's administrations have been catastrophic for this country; they've run up a $34 trillion debt."
He then added that Trump and Biden have "both been catastrophic."
At one point both Melber and Kennedy clashed with the latter accusing the host of stoking vitriol.
"What have I said today that is vitriolic," Melber asked.
Kennedy snapped back: "... that is more vitriolic, more polarized, more poisonous and at any time since the American Civil War; and it's all being amplified by the social media algorithms. And it's hard to see a way out of that."
He continued: "If somebody doesn't come along and say, 'I'm not going to participate in that, and even people act crazy on both sides, I'm not going to be part of that craziness—'"
Melber played a medley of recorded statements Trump made over the past decade including denigrating migrants and praising White Nationalists and "convicted seditionists."
"People don't see what you seem to be saying, which is a type of false equivalence; do you see something different about that this election," Melber told Kennedy.
"This is why I say you're feeding the vitriol," Kennedy countered. "You're trying to get me to hate on President Trump."
Melber disagreed. He said he has laid out Trump's own statements and actions and that Trump is right now saying he has a "license to kill, license to coup, will pardon all those people — you seem to be saying, discussing that as vitriolic. No, it's not."