‘We’re living in a weird period of history’: Full RFK Jr. Interview

so I wanted to start with sort of the landscape around your campaign you know you've got a republican Mega donor funding one of your main super Pacs you've got Rhonda Santa saying he'd put you in his cabinet key allies of Donald Trump are saying they want you to be Trump's running mate why are you Republicans favorite Democrat well you know I started out this campaign saying that I wanted to end the toxic polarization that is dividing America that has uh that I think is as dangerous as any time since the American Civil War and you know a lot of people agree with that a lot of Americans agree with that they talk about the future and apocalyptical terms does the division and don't see where there's a good and and I feel like somebody needs to stand up and stop talking so much focusing so much on the issues that divide us and talk instead about the values that bring us together and I will talk anybody you know I'm happy to talk to uh Donald Trump or Joe Biden I'm not I don't attack either of them personally I talk about their issues critically Democratic voters when they hear that a republican is funding one of your Pacs maybe that gives them pause well but he's not the only Frontier in my bag well yeah but I've got ones that are equally they were Democrats oh I think that's a good thing so to Roger Stone and Steve Bannon no you don't want to run with Trump oh I don't know I'm not going to run for uh but I'm flattered by the offer okay um you know I think you've praised other people who are running as Independents would you yourself ever do that I don't think so why because I'm a Democrat I really feel like the Democratic party has lost its way if you look at all the issues that I stand for if you go through the issues that my father and my uncles vote for I can go and check every one of those boxes and those are the issues that I believe I I believe you know the Democratic party traditionally was Annie Ward we were against censorship um we were not a good home for the neocons those were Republicans a very aggressive Ignatius belligerent foreign policy that they represent which the Democrats are always against uh we were not we were the party that was against Wall Street instead of inviting Wall Street to strip mine the American public and destroy the American middle class um you know my Democratic party was the party that represents the middle class and represents the war in the country uh and I want to bring the Democratic party back to those original values you know something that Democrats have touted over the last two years one of their biggest accomplishments is the inflation reduction act what parts of that legislation spoke to you well I'm going to tell you one of the worst parts of it for Iowa is the big uh climate control initiative the biggest accomplishment for the Biden Administration according to them is uh the carbon capture provision oh that instead of doing carbon capture it has become a mechanism or big a big the biggest boondoggle ever to the big to the oil industry in this state alone there's three pipelines currently being you know under consideration they're going to be uh they're going to be given the uh the ability to take property from Iowa Farmers the best Farmland in the world no I'm going to domain and it's a total Distortion of eminent domain in the Sixth Amendment and those pipelines are going to be used to extract the glass oil from the parking crude and from the Southern Illinois oil fields and you know there it's 173 billion dollars of taxpayer money that's being shifted to the oil industry and the big AG ENT of Iowans impose it and 45 counties are protested to the Iowa Utility Board why is it being built because Bruce front center has contributed 1.6 million dollars for high level Republicans in this state including 163 thousand dollars in the governor and they're ramming this boondoggle ahead which is going to help big oil and it's going to do nothing in terms of limited climate with all that being said would you have signed the inflation reduction no I would not because of that alone that's 173 billion dollars being given to under a pre-tax but it's also one of the biggest investments in fighting climate change that the government has ever embarked well they say that this is fighting climate change is actually doing the opposite why do you feel that way I mean there were tons of subsidies and they're having carbon emissions yep it's not it's it's not it's not it's not going to reduce carbon it's going to probably increase carbon because it's going to increase the capacity for those for the Bakken oil wells that's the Southern Illinois oil was to continue to operate for years after they would Otherwise Die one of the other things that Democrats in Washington have been focused on is codifying protections for abortion access would you sign a Federal Protection to protect the rights that were in the road president if you were president I believe a decision for toward a child should be up to the women during the first three months in Black so you would cap it at 15 weeks yes or 21 weeks yeah three months so three months you would sign a federal cap on that yes I would okay so not unlimited access to abortion as many in the Democratic I think uh you know one's a child is viable outside the womb I think that in the state has an interest in protecting that child that is that supersede and you know I think that the state is interested in every level but at some point I don't you know I'm against I'm for medical freedom I think individuals ought to be able to make their own choice which is why I'm surprised to hear you say you've happened well because you know I think at some point you say to stay I would personally not I think the states um have a you know have a right who uh to protect a child once the child because I have a bad right it increases and I think there's very very few abortions that are performed after that period of time anyway that's most abortions are formed during the first three months of life and I think that's when uh you know I feel I I fought harder than anybody in this country for medical Freedom yeah can you tell me what one of the Kennedy Kennedy series you would look um you know the first let's say the first hundred days first of all um I'm going to go to the agencies and I'm going to go to Bethesda I'm going to go see dot I'm going to go see USDA and uh and begin the process of unraveling corporate capture those agencies this corrupt merger of stating corporate power at his strip mining American middle class of their equity and their wealth okay first 100 days sort of the landscape that you're running in do you think that active litigation against Hunter Biden prevents Joe Biden from being a viable candidate right now oh I wouldn't comment on that I you know I'm leaving the litigation to the courts and I'm trying to stay out of the personal issues the candidates and focus on on the uh the issues that affect all Americans what does it say to you that both Front Runners in your party and on the Republican side are embroiled in legal trouble Trump Trump's got three indictments does that disqualify him but I think we're living in a weird period of uh history right now maybe the understatement of the century yeah um well about you know how what are your news sources where are you going how are you taking in information making big decisions I'm a eclectic in my new sources I look at everything I read continuously and I re I try to read everybody I look at the left I look at the right I don't believe I I do not believe anything that I see on network television at this point because I think it's all distorted by agendas and so I try to go to um you know in science I read the scientific journals um and I read a lot of more obscure sites a lot I I spent a lot of time on some sack with people who are subject matter experts well and I I've developed trust in a lot of those people and you know I think that's what everybody has to do to live in our democracy right now you have to maintain a constant posture of skepticism towards news sources because we don't have Walter Cronkite anymore CNN and snbc are pushing the agenda the last Fox News is pushing the agenda right and uh you know it's hard to and they're not really doing like Walter gronkite used to do who's the most trusted man in the world I disagree with some of the characterizations but I allow you the point um one of the things though that comes up when people start looking at other places for information are certain conspiracy theories for example about the 2020 election do you believe that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election I believe that he lost the Democrat of 2020 election but look I think elections can get stolen in this country is that what happened in 45 in 2001 it was clearly you know I think most Democrats believe it was stolen in 2001 from board too much yeah and that and that it was sold in 2004 from Carrie Hillary Clinton has said uh had suggested the 2016 election was stolen from her Bernie Sanders uh his supporters believed the election was stolen from him I I don't think Americans who suggest that election can be stolen I think they should be listened to their evidence should be seen and considered and uh and they shouldn't be dismissed as people who are enemies of the United States we have an election system that isn't it is broken um because elections can be you know dampered with do you believe that Trump tried to overturn the election results based on what you've seen what I've seen it seems like it was trying to help you turn it and is that when you look at the fact that he's been indicted for that that an impeachable offense I don't mean that in the official sense well I mean it like disqualifying to be president again it may be impeachable uh if he broke a law oh um you know I was reading this morning that there's a Section 3 of the 14th amendment that there's a provision that he may have violated yeah I may or may not disqualified but that's up to the courts and I'm not gonna you know get involved in that debate because it's a it's inflammatory and it really is not about the concerns that most Americans now have which is feeding their family and paying their mortgages and paying their bills can we talk about foreign policy briefly you've criticized the way that Joe Biden has handled the Ukraine situation what would you have done differently if you were in the oval when Russia invaded Ukraine I don't believe Russia would have invaded if I had been in the Oval Office because I Larson's tried to settle it before they went in they wanted to assign the minska courts men's Accords were going to settle the whole thing they would have left unbased as part of Ukraine as a semi-autonomous region but given the Russian ethnic Russians the right to speak their own language and protection from government violence um the Russians wanted to sign it the Germans approved it the French approved it and zolenski ran in 2019 and got 70 percent of the vote promising to sign it oh it's our fault because we went over there and told zolenski he couldn't sign it then the Russians put 40 000 troops in not to take over the country because he can't do it with forty thousand troops but to bring us back to the negotiating table signed an agreement in March of 2022 and the Russians signed it and were withdrawing their troops and in April Joe Biden said Boris Johnson to the Ukraine to blow up that agreement I said to wreck result that in that intervention by our White House 350 000 Ukrainian kids have died oh this is not a war that the ukrainians wanted they gave zielinski 70 of the vote when he was running as a peace candidate promising to sign the agreement we're the ones that wanted the war and you know even Secretary of Defense Floyd Austin that same month that we blew up the agreement when he was asked why are we in Ukraine he didn't say it's to protect Ukrainian Freedom he said it's to exhaust the Russian army and degrade its capacity to fight elsewhere in the world and Biden when he was asked that pond and we're there to do regime change with Vladimir Putin but that's not about Ukraine that is that indicates is Ukraine is a pawn in a proxy war and a geopolitical boxy war between Russia and and the United States so much has always been clear right I mean do you think that we should know a lot about them in that fight then I don't think I think we should settle the fight I think we should settle it away by using U.S troops oh okay negotiating a peace agreement I don't think we should send U.S troops okay when you say we I just wanted to check oh well we're funding it I mean if I'm just is now asking for another 40 million dollars and you would you do that no of course not we need that money here we're borrowing six billion dollars a day from the China to fund the war over there cdc's entire budget is 12 billion epa's entire budget is 12 million we spent already 113 billion over there we don't have that money we're like alcohol like who's you know behind on the mortgage and is taking the milk money to the bar and buying grounds for strangers you know that's what we're doing the Ukraine and it's a war that we started that we provoked thank you for letting me cover a million topics I really appreciate it thanks for watching our YouTube channel follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading the NBC News app

Channel: NBC News

Views: 423,610

Keywords: dc, election, government, meet the press, mtp, politics, washington, washington d.c.

Id: p8zHyX8QUpE

Length: 15min 59sec (959 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 14 2023