'Do we believe him?' RFK Jr trolled after blaming social media manager for flirty comment on model's TikTok

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr found himself engulfed in a social media storm on Thursday, February 1, as his campaign's TikTok account faced intense scrutiny over a resurfaced comment on an OnlyFans model's video.

Kennedy took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to address the issue, stating, “The TikTok comment in question was made in 2022 long before I ever had a TikTok account. This comment now appears on my account because the account was previously owned by one of the campaign’s young social media managers.”

A simple 'Wow' turned heads

The controversial comment, a simple 'Wow' accompanied by two smiling heart emojis, was posted by Kennedy in September 2022 on a video featuring Tyler Idol, a popular OnlyFans performer. The video is said to have depicted Idol twerking on a cake in skimpy black shorts.

The incident, though not on the scale of historical political scandals, provided an opportunity for both Joe Biden and Donald Trump to poke fun at the longshot presidential hopeful, potentially turning him into the butt of late-night TV jokes.

However, the Kennedy campaign moved swiftly to mitigate the backlash, pointing fingers at a young campaign aide identified as social media manager Rijoun Murphy, 33, from Georgia. The campaign clarified that Murphy's account, previously owning the TikTok handle, was transferred to Kennedy's to broadcast his presidential announcement in April 2023, per Radar Online.

"When Mr. Kennedy announced his run for the presidency in April of 2023 the team wanted it broadcasted on every social media platform, including TikTok," Stefanie Spear, a spokeswoman for Kennedy, explained. "However, TikTok does not allow live streaming for accounts that have less than 1,000 followers."

Therefore, Murphy's account, with over 1,000 followers, was repurposed for the campaign, inadvertently transferring all previous personal comments, including the infamous one to Tyler Idol, to Kennedy's account.

"The social media manager decided to transfer his account which had more than 1,000 followers to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in order to stream Kennedy's announcement on TikTok," said Spear.

In an attempt to defuse the situation, the campaign reached out to TikTok for assistance. A campaign aide named 'Amaryllis' detailed the confusion surrounding the comment, initially assuming it was photoshopped.

Amaryllis stated, "Given that other social media platforms do not allow users to change their name without documentation of name change, we were confused about what was going on."

However, she subsequently answered her own question.

"Rijoun concluded that since RFK had not previously had an account, he would have no followers on Day One and therefore decided that he would repurpose his own account, which had just over 1,000 followers, to be sure he could complete his task. In the rush of his preparation, it never occurred to him that any previous comments he had made would then be attributed to RFK," Amaryllis explained.

Social media reactions

Despite RFK Jr's explanation, many on social media trolled him for the TikTok comment.

"Oh Yea! Gotta be the social media person. Mr. Kennedy," one posted on X.

"Do we believe him?" another wondered.

"He’s tarnishing the Kennedy family name!" someone else added. 

In the midst of this, Tyler Idol continues her regular postings to her 701,300 followers, maintaining her provocative content on the platform and promoting her OnlyFans account for paying subscribers.