Robert F. Kennedy TikTok Thirst Trap Comment Controversy
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Overview
Robert F. Kennedy TikTok Thirst Trap Comment Controversy refers to the drama surrounding a 2022 comment on a post from a TikTok fitness influencer purportedly made by presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which was brought to wider attention on January 31st, 2024, through circulation and discussion on X / Twitter. Kennedy denied having commented on the post and said it was actually a staffer.
Background
On September 3rd, 2022, TikTok fitness influencer and OnlyFans content creator Tyler Idol posted a mirror selfie video without wearing pants, earning nearly half a million likes and over 5.3 million views in the course of 16 months.[1] On September 16th, the account of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. allegedly made a since-deleted comment on the video, saying "Wow" (seen below) alongside a series of emojis.
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7139156224699944238
A post from Reddit's /r/redscarepod, a subreddit devoted to the Red Scare podcast from January 24th, 2024, pointed out the Kennedy comment, receiving 380 upvotes over the course of nine days.[8]
On January 31st, a screen-recorded video of the original TikTok with Kennedy's purported comment gained traction on X, largely from a post made by X user @_JohnnyMAGA, which received over 5,700 likes over the course of two days and over 1,900 reposts.[2] This post was widely quote-tweeted and spread around political commentary accounts on that platform.
Developments
Kennedy Denial
On February 1st, 2024, Kennedy addressed the allegations through a statement on his X account, blaming the comment on an aide who controlled his TikTok account back in 2022 (seen below).[4] Kennedy's thread denying that he made the comment received 19,000 likes over the course of a day.
Major political news outlets including Politico, Business Insider and The Hill ran stories about Kennedy's blaming of an aide for the TikTok comment.[6] The Daily Mail claimed that the social media manager was a young man named Rijoun Murphy, who had transferred his account over to Kennedy's name because it had over 1,000 followers and so would allow the candidate to livestream.[7]
Online Reactions
Tyler Idol posted a follow-up video describing her reaction to being "the RFK jr girl," earning over 6,100 likes and 83,000 views in one day on February 1st, 2024.[5]
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7330655393351224622
On X, posters joked about the documented womanizing of other members of the Kennedy family. For example, on January 31st, X user @soland_michael joked (seen below, left) that the incident proved RFK Jr.'s family inheritance, earning over 27,000 likes in two days.[3]
Another post (seen below, right) by user @_johnnymaga paired the RFK comment with the Donald Trump's Tennis Photo meme on February 1st, garnering almost 1,000 likes in a day.[9]
External References
[1] TikTok – @oftyleridol
[2] X – @johnnymaga
[3] X – @soland_michael
[4] X – @RobertKennedyJr
[5] TikTok – @oftyleridol
[6] Politico – RFK Jr. blames young campaign staffer for TikTok thirst trap comment
[7] Daily Mail – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blames social media manager for resurfaced lusty comment on video of scantily-clad OnlyFans model posted from his verified TikTok account
[8] Reddit – /r/redscarepod
[9] X – @_johnnymaga
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