Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the attention he was getting for a brain parasite and turned it political by calling for a debate.
“I offer to eat five more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate,” he wrote Wednesday on the social-media platform X.
“I feel confident of the result even with a six-worm handicap,” he added.
A New York Times article revealed Wednesday that Mr. Kennedy said in a deposition that a doctor from NewYork-Presbyterian believed he had a dead parasite inside his head instead of a brain tumor.
He had originally consulted neurologists because he was suffering memory loss and brain fog, and they had found dark spots on his brain.
Mr. Kennedy said the doctor thought the dark spot “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”
He said he doesn’t know what kind of parasite it was, or how and where he got it, although he suspected it may have been when he took a trip to South Asia.
He told the Times that he has recovered from the memory loss and fogginess and hadn’t experienced any aftereffects from the parasite, for which he didn’t receive treatment.
In the comments on the Wednesday debate challenge, X owner Elon Musk suggested a debate on X Spaces, with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson as moderator.
“I’m in!” Mr. Kennedy said.
The story of the presidential candidates brain worm caught attention fast, with jokes and comments popping up on social media sites. While most jokes were lighthearted, others went further and darker.
Rep. Mike Collins made a connection between Mr. Kennedy’s brain worm and the assassinations of his other family members.
“You either die a Kennedy with a hole in the brain or live long enough to become a Kennedy with a hole in the brain,” Mr. Collins, Georgia Republican, wrote on X.
Mr. Kennedy’s father, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, were assassinated, with the latter famously shot in the back of the head.