Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Cheryl Hines doesn't deserve to be bullied over Donald Trump because his endorsement doesn't mean his wife is a Trump supporter ... quite the opposite.
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00:00Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has thrown his support behind Donald Trump.
00:06There have been stories that have surfaced over the last day or so that his wife, Sheryl
00:11Hines, was involved in this.
00:15As the reports go, that she may have even met with Trump and her husband and gave some
00:23encouragement.
00:24I would say that Sheryl's reaction was the opposite of encouraging.
00:30On the night that President Trump was shot, we learned from his associates that he wanted
00:43to have this conversation with me.
00:45She urged me to do that, and she did that out of compassion.
00:50It was an emotional night for our country.
00:53It was an emotional night for everyone, and she made the right judgment.
00:59She did attend a meeting, a subsequent meeting with President Trump.
01:05She attended that meeting mainly to make sure that there were no hasty decisions made at
01:11it.
01:12This has been a really difficult issue for Sheryl, just the opposite of what she would
01:21want to do.
01:23She went along with it because she loves me and she wanted to be supportive of me,
01:29but it was not something that she ever encouraged.
01:34I would say it was her trepidation about this and discomfort with this was, I would say,
01:43were the dominant feelings.
01:45There could be different reasons for trepidation.
01:49Is it accurate to assume the trepidation is that she does not support Donald Trump?
01:55Yes.
01:56She's a lifelong Democrat, and the idea of supporting Donald Trump as president was just,
02:05like I said, it's something that she would have never imagined, that she never wanted
02:09in her life, that I think causes her a lot of discomfort.
02:17I'm very grateful to her for giving me personally support, but she was not somebody who was
02:24clamoring for this move.
02:27I would say the opposite was true.
02:29Bradley Whitford from West Wing went on Twitter yesterday and just blasted Sheryl, saying,
02:40Hey Sheryl Hines, a way to stay silent while your lunatic husband throws his support behind
02:47the adjudicated rapist who brags about stripping women of their fundamental rights, gutsy,
02:54great example for the kids, profile in courage.
02:58I'm assuming you and Sheryl have seen that.
03:01I wonder what your reaction, and what her reaction is to that.
03:05My reaction would be, well, you can imagine, Harvey, that I had some strong feelings about
03:12that, but it's a template for bullying.
03:21Here you have a guy, instead of challenging me, he's attacking my wife.
03:28Who would do that?
03:29What kind of person, what kind of man would do that?
03:33Why wouldn't he talk to me directly?
03:36And I'm happy to engage him, and I'm happy to explain why I do what I do.
03:43Why would you, you know, he, like many people who point fingers and accuse other people
03:51of bullying women, that's exactly what he was doing there.
03:55I want to ask you about something that has circulated in the media over the last couple
04:00of days.
04:02Comments that you had made previously about Donald Trump, which include saying that he's
04:08a threat to democracy, a bully, that he appealed to bigotry, hatred, and xenophobia, and prejudice,
04:17that he was a terrible president, and you even accused him of corruption.
04:22Those were comments you made.
04:24What changed?
04:25Well, I gave a long speech a couple days ago that, about a 45-minute speech that explained
04:33my evolution away from those views and towards the endorsement.
04:40You don't have, you don't have a lot of time here, and I'm happy to answer any questions
04:45about that, but it's not something that I, that evolution is not something that I can
04:51distill or summarize in a minute.