CNN anchor Jake Tapper published a lengthy diatribe on his network’s web site accusing Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of telling a “wild and false story about me” during a recent podcast appearance.
Tapper responded to claims made by RFK Jr. during a June 5 podcast appearance with Jordan Peterson.
According to Tapper, RFK Jr. falsely claimed that Tapper told him in 2005 that an ABC News segment was spiked by management.
Tapper, who was a correspondent for ABC News at the time, interviewed RFK Jr. over an online article that he wrote for Salon.com and Rolling Stone magazine which Tapper said included wild claims about vaccines and their link to autism.
The RFK Jr. story, which alleged that a preservative found in most childhood vaccines caused neurological disorders, was eventually removed by both Rolling Stone and Salon.com.
RFK Jr. told Peterson earlier this month that he and Tapper worked together “for three weeks doing this incredible documentary” about the magazine article.
“No and no,” Tapper wrote in the CNN article on Thursday.
Tapper insisted that he told RFK Jr. in 2005 that ABC News was “holding the story for a day.”
RFK Jr. then told Peterson that “the night before the piece was supposed to run, [Tapper] called me up and said, ‘The piece just got killed by corporate.’”
“I didn’t say that in any way and the piece wasn’t killed,” Tapper insisted.
Tapper then accused RFK Jr. of misquoting him.
“All my career, I have never had a piece killed by corporate and I’m so mad,” RFK Jr. quoted Tapper as saying.
Tapper denied the claim.
“I hadn’t,” Tapper wrote. “I had been at ABC News for two years. I had had plenty of pieces killed.”
“Not once did ‘corporate’ play a role in killing any of them,” the CNN anchor wrote.
Tapper wrote: “Now in his retelling, a two-minute piece was an ‘incredible documentary,’ a few days of work was three weeks, one remote interview was me working intensely with him, and a piece that got delayed one day so we could interview some actual experts is a piece that got killed.”
According to Tapper, ABC News aired the story on June 22, 2005.
“Kennedy alleges a government cover-up, arguing the Centers for Disease Control, in collusion with the pharmaceutical industry, suppressed data about the dangers of Thimerosal,” Tapper reported at the time.
Thimerosal is a preservative that was removed from vaccines years prior to the 2005 story.
Tapper cited several medical studies that showed no link between the preservative and incidences of autism among children.
“So, yeah, we did the fact-checking for our piece that RFK Jr. didn’t do himself,” Tapper wrote.
“And he remains someone you cannot rely upon for facts, truth or accuracy.”
The Post has sought comment from RFK Jr.
