Olivia Nuzzi helped RFK Jr. navigate presidential endorsement decision, book reveals
Former New York Magazine journalist Olivia Nuzzi helped Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now President Donald Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary, walk through several possible endorsement scenarios while he was still running for president, according to her new book.
"He asked me what he should do," Nuzzi wrote. "I did not think it my place to offer prescriptive advice as it related to most things, nor did I think that I knew for sure what he ought to do anyway.
"I did know about the president, though, and I did know what it was to engage with him, had seen over the years over many episodes what it looked like when someone was able to bend his peculiar ways to their will, or what it looked like when someone tried to do that and failed, and I did know what the outcomes of any deal with this devil were likely to be," Nuzzi wrote, recalling when RFK Jr. weighed his next move on who to endorse in the 2024 presidential election.
Nuzzi's book, "American Canto," was released Tuesday and refers to Kennedy as "The Politician" throughout, as the journalist largely avoided specific names. Nuzzi parted ways with New York Magazine last year after reports surfaced alleging she had an intimate relationship with Kennedy, whom she covered for the publication.
"I approached his dilemma Socratically. Mostly that is what I do, ask questions and listen. Mostly that is what I am good at. 'How do you feel when you visualize standing onstage and endorsing the Democrat?' I asked. 'Nauseous,' he said. 'How do you feel when you visualize standing onstage and endorsing the Republican?' I asked. 'Nauseous,' he said. He laughed, but he wore a pained expression. I had not before now observed him like this, so unsure of himself and so worried," the journalist wrote.
Nuzzi, who now serves as the West Coast editor for Vanity Fair, said that, as Kennedy saw it, if he remained in the presidential race, he might ruin his only chance to "address through policy" what he had long sought to achieve through activism.
"I laid out the various ways it might go, based on my observations of the ways it tended to go. The president might not keep his word, might go back on any deal that was struck; a version of this had already happened the last time the Politician had attempted to work with the president. Or the president might condemn him to a purgatory in which he served essentially as a figurehead," Nuzzi wrote, outlining what a possible endorsement for Trump might mean.
She warned that the president could fire him if something went wrong. The journalist said the two of them talked through the political considerations as well and said "the politician was not delusional" about his political present or future. After Kennedy joined Trump on stage at an Arizona rally in late August 2024, Nuzzi wrote that she told him that she was "proud of him," though not because she agreed with his decision.
In another section of the book, Nuzzi recalled a phone call she had with a reporter who planned to cover the alleged affair between her and Kennedy, during which she admitted to lying about their relationship. She described an exchange in which she told Kennedy, "I know you’ll make the best decision for the country. I love you."
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"When he sought or I volunteered my opinion, what I offered most often was advice about how to think through a decision, not about which decision to make; it was not my place or interest to tell him what to do, but to be helpful and supportive while he weighed his options," Nuzzi wrote. "My contribution was to encourage him to tune out those who sought to influence him from motives that were, as he described them, shallow and selfish, and to listen to himself instead."
Nuzzi insisted that when Kennedy did take her advice, it was "almost never" in the way she intended.
The journalist explained that she had heard a story about Kennedy dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park and asked him about it. She said Kennedy then told her the entire story.
"How to handle such an unprecedented communications strait? My advice seemed sound to me. ‘I guess, if I were you, I would get ahead of the story,’ I said. Getting ahead of a story is media jargon for nullifying negative facts by introducing them yourself in the most positive light possible. The Politician liked that idea," Nuzzi wrote.
In early August 2024, Kennedy posted a video of himself telling comedian Roseanne Barr about the incident.
Nuzzi wrote that she did not intend for her suggestion to "get ahead of the story" to mean that Kennedy would "introduce the facts through a more entertaining story than his enemies could ever dream" of leaking to the media.
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During an interview with The Bulwark's Tim Miller Tuesday, Nuzzi admitted she "f----- up."
"I did something wrong. Those ethics rules exist for a reason. They're very good rules, and I had violated that," she said.
Kennedy's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
A Kennedy spokesperson previously denied that any physical relationship had occurred and said Kennedy had met Nuzzi only once.
