RFK Jr. said he met Charlie Kirk in 2001. That’s impossible

In September 2025, a video circulated online purportedly showing U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying that he met Charlie Kirk on the latter’s podcast, “The Charlie Kirk Show,” in July 2001, and that by the end of recording they had become “soulmates” and “spiritual brothers.”

The video appeared on X (archived) and Instagram (archived), where users shared their confusion about the claim, given that Kirk would have been a child in 2001. Snopes readers also searched our website for information about the rumor.

RFK Jr. claims to have met Charlie Kirk in July 2001 and they immediately became soul mates. 

pic.twitter.com/n2OBXIQXPX

— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) September 15, 2025

The video was authentic and was not the product of artificial intelligence. Multiple credible news outlets, such as CBS News (archived) and C-SPAN (archived), posted longer versions of the footage confirming that Kennedy made the comment on Sept. 15, 2025, during a prayer vigil held at the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C., for the late Charlie Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, who was fatally shot in Utah five days earlier at a speaking event on Sept. 10.

It would have been impossible for Kennedy and Kirk to have met on the latter’s podcast in July 2001, as Kirk would have been just 7 years old at the time. Additionally, “The Charlie Kirk Show” didn’t launch until nearly two decades later, on May 1, 2019.

Social media users speculated that Kennedy misspoke and meant to say 2021. He did appear on Kirk’s podcast (archived) in July 2021, therefore it is possible he misspoke. Snopes contacted HHS for clarification on Kennedy’s comments and will update this story if we receive a response.

In the clip, Kennedy explained how his relationship with Kirk developed (emphasis in bold ours):

I met Charlie for the first time in July of 2001. I went on his podcast, and I think we approached each other with a lot of trepidation at that time, but by the end of that podcast we were soulmates, we were spiritual brothers and we were friends. And over the next couple of years our friendship blossomed. He ended up being the primary architect of my unification with President Trump, which I did my endorsement at his rally, at the Turning Point rally in Scottsdale, and he was the one who put the sparklers on the stage when I showed up.

The comment “over the next couple of years” suggested that the pair’s meeting occurred close to when Kennedy was picked by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2024 to be head of HHS, giving credence to the possibility that Kennedy misspoke.

Snopes has fact-checked numerous rumors relating to the health secretary, including the claim that he and the White House buried a study linking alcohol use to cancer.

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