Kurt Andersen: RFK Jr. And Trump Are So Similar and Always Have Been as ‘Entitled Rich Boys’

LEMIRE: “So, Kurt, we’ll turn to your wild RFK Jr. Story in just a moment, but let’s first just get you in on this. I mean, to Molly’s point, the incentive for Trump to do this debate is he’s currently — he’s currently losing. I mean, it is very close, but he is — he is down a little, and the trend lines are with Harris right now, so that’d be a reason to try to change momentum. But also, I just have to think that if he were to duck this debate, he’d be called a coward by so many, and it just seems that that’s something that Donald Trump just couldn’t stand.”
ANDERSEN: “I couldn’t agree with you more. It seems to me this is, you know, a series of negotiations about how to do it and how to do best. And if — if as Eugene said, if it’s all about whether the mics are muted when the speaker isn’t speaking, I can’t imagine that that would be a deal breaker. No. And I agree with you. He is, you know, ‘I am tough. I am strong. I’m not going to let this woman show who’s — who’s tougher.’ I can’t imagine he would accept that. And even, of course, he would invent ways around that, ‘Oh, they’re’ — whatever. ‘This ABC is fake news.’ I can’t imagine that that would go down with even, you know, some of his possible voters.”
LEMIRE: “Yeah, he’ll make excuses, I would think, as to how he might do, but it’s hard to imagine him not showing up that day. So, Kurt, let’s turn to your latest piece for ‘The Atlantic,’ which has this remarkable headline: ‘RFK Jr. Was My Drug Dealer.’ Kennedy’s endorsement of Donald Trump raises an awkward question. And you write about an instance in which you met Kennedy while a student at Harvard back in 1972. Take it away. What happened?”
ANDERSEN: “Didn’t meet him actually until ‘73. But yes. And really, the story, of course, has this true fact headline and — and my little anecdote about buying cocaine from him during our freshman year is, you know, interesting. I’ve told friends about it over the years, never was going to write about it, never was going to publicize it. It’d been — it was just one of those interesting things. My little connection to this famous and increasingly famous person over my lifetime. But — so why I wrote about it when he dropped out and endorsed Donald Trump in that speech? And I was of two minds about it until I heard this amazing speech he gave on Friday endorsing Donald Trump. Because my — my — people, if they read it, will see it’s not about, ‘Oh, God, he’s a drug dealer. Isn’t that terrible,’ at all. Rather, my point was, what a strange, selfish, jerky weirdo he was at 19 as my drug dealer. And by the way, the one time in my life I’ve ever bought cocaine, just for the record. But — so that was my point. And also to give a glimpse, given that in his endorsement of Donald Trump and his Republican Party, he, you know, was such — the idea of this environmental activist lawyer endorsing the most anti-environment president and presidential nominee, I think, in modern history —“
LEMIRE: “Mm-hmm.”
ANDERSEN: “— it’s just extraordinary because it’s about his own — continuing his 15 minutes of big fame.
And perhaps it sounds like from the speech, getting to be, say, if not health and human services secretary, head of the FDA, because he’s talking — and I haven’t seen much about this. In the speech he talked about, ‘Oh, I will staff these agencies so corporate — big corporate power will not capture regulation.’ Well, I will staff sounds like he’s going to be running something for a possible second Trump Administration.”
LEMIRE: “Mm-hmm.”
ANDERSEN: “And — and moreover, his speech, this — this line of his — this alternative facts, upside down world, fantasy land, Trumpist idea of Democrats versus Republicans — said, when I — ‘In early 60s, the first time I went to the Democrat convention when my uncle was being nominated,’ he said, ‘the Democratic Party was the champion of the Constitution and of civil rights and against authoritarianism and the party of labor and the working class and the champion of the environment and against big money interests.’ But the Democratic Party, he was saying, is not that now. But — which is untrue and —“
LEMIRE: “Right.”
ANDERSEN: “— and increasingly untrue given this Harris Democratic Party combination of muscular foreign policy and progressive social and economic policy. But I mean, I just — at that point, I just lost it. I said, ‘OK, this guy is as full of — of lying fantasies, mental disorder, selfishness, whatever, as Trump.’ And then in my piece, I go on and on. I really never thought about the degree in the ways in which Bobby Kennedy, Jr. And Donald Trump are — are so similar, and always have been as these entitled rich boys who have — have gotten where they are —“
LEMIRE: “Yeah.” [crosstalk]
ANDERSEN: “— and are, you know, leading this one degraded political party to whatever it’s being led to.”
LEMIRE: “Yeah. And — and you’re certainly right. We talked about earlier in the show. Robert FK Jr. For a time was a pretty credible, serious —“