RFK Jr. Calls Libertarian Candidates and Explains, Very Carefully, What He Is Not Allowed to Say
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. knows exactly what a bribe sounds like. He knows because he took one.
In 2024, Kennedy was running for president as an independent. He had spent years building a following — vaccine skeptics, MAHA true believers, people who thought the two-party system was broken and that a Kennedy could fix it. He had actual support. And then he dropped out, endorsed Donald Trump, and was rewarded with the cabinet-level position of Secretary of Health and Human Services.
He calls this a “pragmatic choice.” He is now using that choice as a sales pitch to get other third-party candidates to do what he did.
Audio recording obtained by the Washington Post reveals Kennedy called Rick Stewart, a Libertarian candidate running in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, on June 11, describing himself as a “liaison with the White House,” arguing that a Democratic takeover of the House would undermine President Trump’s agenda, and suggesting that he could help the candidate if he left the race. “I can’t go into specifics because there’s legal prohibitions about that,” Kennedy told Stewart. ABC 3340
Read that sentence again. The Secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States — a Cabinet official subject to the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using their official authority to influence elections — called a congressional candidate, told that candidate there were legal prohibitions on what he could say, and then implied there was something worth saying.
This is what a lawyer sounds like when he is trying very hard to commit a crime without technically committing a crime. The legal prohibitions don’t exist to be mentioned. They exist to be obeyed. Mentioning them while implying you know what’s on the other side of them is not compliance with the law. It is a wink.
The Sales Pitch
On the call, Kennedy referenced his own decision in 2024 to drop out of the presidential race and back Donald Trump. “Ultimately, you have to ask yourself the same question I did: Is it more important for me to run as an independent, make a point? Or could I make an agreement that puts me in a position where I can make a real difference in people’s lives?” Salon
This is the template. Kennedy dropped out. Kennedy made an “agreement.” Kennedy is now Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy is now calling you to suggest you could do the same thing. He is not offering you a government job. He is “being your advocate.” He cannot go into specifics. But you and he could talk about specifics, if that’s something you wanted to talk about.
Stewart, who told the Washington Post he interpreted Kennedy’s call as an attempt at a quid pro quo, described it this way: “He was very careful about the words that he used, but the whole implication is: You help us, we’ll help you. They want to get me out because I might pick up 2 or 3 percent — and if I pick up 2 or 3 percent, they think it’ll come out of the Republican pocket.” NBC News
Stewart, 74, is not dropping out.
Marco Battaglia, a Libertarian candidate running in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, said he also received a call from Kennedy this month urging him to drop out. Two candidates. Two districts. One Cabinet secretary making the rounds as a White House political operative, using the prestige and implied authority of his federal position to clear the field for Republican candidates in competitive Iowa races. Wikipedia
Trump’s political adviser James Blair had asked Kennedy to call Stewart and Battaglia and encourage them to drop out because he’d heard they respected him. Wikipedia
He is not the Secretary of Health and Human Services when he makes these calls. He is a campaign surrogate who happens to also be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The office goes with him wherever he goes. The implied authority goes with him. The suggestion that someone in his position could be a candidate’s “advocate” carries weight precisely because of what he is, and what he has demonstrated he can deliver.
The Hatch Act and the Wink
The Hatch Act is not an obscure piece of regulatory minutiae. It is a law enacted in 1939 specifically because Americans decided that federal employees using the power of their government positions to influence elections was dangerous and corrupt. It is the legal expression of a principle that everyone who has ever thought seriously about democratic governance understands intuitively: the machinery of the executive branch should not be used to tilt elections toward the party that controls the executive branch.
Government ethics experts said Kennedy’s apparent intervention in the Iowa races was unethical and potentially illegal, depending on whether he promised candidates specific favors and whether he made the calls in his capacity as a Cabinet official. NBC News
He said he was calling as a “liaison with the White House.” That is, by definition, his capacity as a Cabinet official. He is not Rick Kennedy, private citizen who happens to know some people. He is the Secretary of Health and Human Services describing himself as a representative of the White House making calls to influence congressional races.
Kennedy apparently understands this, which is why he said “I can’t go into specifics because there’s legal prohibitions about that.” He knows the law. He is threading the needle between committing an obvious crime and accomplishing the same goal with plausible deniability.
The wink is the crime. Or it should be.
The Man Who Isn’t Running His Department
There is something deeply clarifying about this story when you place it next to what Kennedy is NOT doing.
Kennedy has been accused of being “checked out” of the day-to-day work of responding to disease outbreaks, overseeing food and drug safety, and managing major public health programs. The New York Times reported this month that he has been narrowly focused on his own priorities, including issuing meat-heavy food recommendations and trying to “prove” that vaccines are harmful, despite a lack of scientific evidence. Wikipedia
There is a hantavirus outbreak. There is an Ebola crisis affecting Americans abroad. The FDA is under-resourced and under-led. The CDC has had its scientific independence gutted. Food safety inspections are being cut. The agency Kennedy nominally runs — the one he accepted the “pragmatic” deal to lead — is in open organizational chaos.
And Kennedy is in Iowa. On the phone with Libertarian candidates. Explaining carefully that there are legal prohibitions on what he can say, before saying it.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services is working the phones for the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. He is not available to discuss the hantavirus.
What This Means
Kennedy ended his 2024 presidential run to endorse Donald Trump, in exchange for a cabinet-level position. Speaking to Stewart, he compared the Libertarian’s situation with his own decision — framing it as a model to follow. Wikipedia
This is the model of the Trump administration applied to democracy itself. You drop out. You endorse. You are rewarded. You then call the next person and explain, very carefully, what a “pragmatic choice” looks like and what kind of “agreement” you could “make.”
The deal RFK Jr. made in 2024 was not a political calculation in the ordinary sense. It was a transaction. He sold his endorsement, his following, his name, and his credibility for a cabinet seat. The credibility was arguably the most valuable part, because it allowed him to call Rick Stewart in Iowa and say “I made the deal and now I’m Secretary of HHS and maybe you and I can talk about specifics.”
The transaction he is now proposing to Stewart and Battaglia is identical in structure to the one he made himself. Drop out. Make a point, or make an agreement. Ask yourself which one accomplishes more.
Rick Stewart, a 74-year-old Libertarian from Cedar Rapids, said he’s not dropping out.
Good for Rick Stewart.
The man who took the deal is now selling it door to door. And he’s careful about the words he uses.