RFK Jr. hits back after Trump’s ‘barely coherent’ rant

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hit back at former President Trump following his “barely coherent” rant on Truth Social on Friday night targeting the independent presidential candidate.

“When frightened men take to social media they risk descending into vitriol, which makes them sound unhinged,” Kennedy said Saturday in a post on the social platform X. “President Trump’s rant against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims that should best be resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate.” 

Kennedy’s rebuttal comes as Trump went after the independent White House candidate in a series of Truth Social posts published Friday. The former president argued the independent candidate has been inserted in the field to help President Biden and that his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is not a serious vice presidential pick. 

Kennedy praised Trump as a debater but said he does not have to be “panicked” to exchange ideas on the podium.  

“President Trump, who has proven himself the most adept debater in modern American political history, should not be panicked to meet me on that stage,” Kennedy said. 

In the hypothetical debate, Kennedy said he would go after Trump for voicing support for a pathway to help fund Ukraine, the national debt and failure to drain the “swamp.” 

“He promised to end the Ukraine war and then colluded with Speaker Johnson and President Biden to fund it,” the independent candidate said. “He let Big Pharma and his corrupt bureaucrats run roughshod over him as President. He promised to cut the deficit and ran up the biggest debt in history. He promised to run the government like a business and then closed down our businesses. He promised to drain the swamp and then filled his administration with swamp creatures. He promised to protect our rights and then torpedoed the Constitution.” 

“Instead of lobbing poisonous bombs from the safety of his bunker, let’s hear President Trump defend his record to me mano-a-mano by respectful, congenial debate,” he said.

Kennedy has consistently polled behind both Trump and President Biden, with recent polling of a hypothetical match-up between the three finding Kennedy with 7.7 percent support.